[2] After graduating from Prairie View A&M University in 1939, he joined Milt Larkin's band which, at the time, according to Down Beat,[2] also included Eddie Vinson, Arnett Cobb, and Illinois Jacquet in the reed section and Cedric Haywood as pianist and arranger.
Archia arrived in Chicago as a member of Larkin's band, which took up a nine-month residency backing T-Bone Walker at the Rhumboogie Club from August 1942 to May 1943.
[3] He frequently participated in tenor saxophone duels with Buster Bennett, Gene Ammons, Claude McLin, and Hal Singer, among others.
His last recording session was a blues jam organized by Armand "Jump" Jackson in 1960 for visiting German critic Joachim-Ernst Berendt, who was touring the United States doing research on jazz history.
He worked with Arnett Cobb in the Sonny Franklin Big Band,[4] which also included Joe Bridgewater and Don Wilkerson, with guest appearances by Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and another old Larkin bandmate, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson.