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Black Inventors

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Do you know any black inventors?

These black inventors have made our lives easier. And, we don't even realize it. I wanted to honor these men and women who made an impact in our everyday lives and their legacy lives on to the next generation forevermore.

Most of these people may have been overlooked and little known African American inventors. But let's celebrate these brilliant creative innovative inventors, whether they knew they were creating something special or not whose creations changed our world.

But they will never be forgotten. Thank you for making daily life easier and convenient for the rest of us!

And, so many black inventors to name I can't fit everyone in...it really is fascinating to learn the source of the creator of the invention and the story behind it.

Black Inventors

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Carbon Light Bulb Filament, Invented by Lewis Latimer in 1881

The light bulb itself was invented by Thomas Edison, but the innovation used to create longer-lasting light bulbs with a carbon filament came from African American inventor Lewis Latimer. Latimer, the son of formerly enslaved people, began work in a patent law firm after serving in the military for the Union during the Civil War. He was recognized for his talent drafting patents and was promoted to head draftsman, where he co-invented an improved bathroom for railroad trains.

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Automatic Elevator Doors, Invented by Alexander Miles in 1887

The use of elevators in everyday life keeps people from committing to long and grueling climbs up several flights of stairs. However, before the creation of elevator doors that close automatically, riding a lift was both complicated and risky.

Before automatic doors, people had to manually shut both the shaft and elevator doors before riding. Forgetting to do so led to multiple accidents as people fell down elevator shafts. When the daughter of African American inventor Alexander Miles almost fatally fell down the shaft, he took it upon himself to develop a solution. In 1887 he took out a patent for a mechanism that automatically opens and closes elevator shaft doors and his designs are largely reflected in elevators used today.

Fotosearch/Getty Images & Amin Yusifov/Getty Images

The Three-Light Traffic Light, Invented by Garrett Morgan in 1923

With only an elementary school education, Black inventor (and son of an enslaved parent), Garrett Morgan came up with several significant inventions, including an improved sewing machine and the gas mask. However, one of Morgan's most influential inventions was the improved traffic light. Without his innovation, drivers across the nation would be directed by a two-light system.

MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES

Madam CJ Walker
Madam CJ Walker was the first African American woman to become a self-made millionaire after creating a line of hair products geared towards Black hair. (She created the first, "Madam Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower," in 1905).

Photo Credit: thinkgrowth.org

Marie Van Brittan Brown
Brown filed a patent in 1966 for the first-ever home security system after wanting to increase her own house's security in her Queens, New York neighborhood. Her original design contained a camera, two-way microphone, peepholes, and monitors, all serving as the foundations for today's modern systems.

Photo Credit: thinkgrowth.org

In 2013, Marian Croak was inducted into Women in Technology International’s hall of fame, a move that recognizes her remarkable achievements in tech. Croak holds over 135 patents, primarily in voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP), some in other areas. She has another 100 patents currently under review.
Today, Marian is an SVP at AT&T, serves as a mentor for women in AT&T labs, and sits on the board for the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Center.

Photo Credit: thinkgrowth.org

Shirley Jackson Jackson, the first African American woman to earn a doctorate at MIT, is responsible for monumental telecommunications research that led to the invention of products such as the touch-tone phone, portable fax, fiber optic cables, and caller ID. In 2014 President Barack Obama named her the co-chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory.

UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES 

George Washington Carver
So many of us know George Washington Carver as the man famous for giving us peanut butter (bless him) but he's responsible for much more. As an agricultural chemist in an effort to increase the profitability of sweet potatoes and peanuts (which thrived in the South as opposed to dwindling cotton supply), Carver began conducting experiments in 1896 and created 518 new products from the crops. They include ink, dye, soap, cosmetics, flour, vinegar, and synthetic rubber. He publicly revealed his experiments in 1914.
ImagLonnie G. Johnson created the design for what would one day be called the Super Soaker. Sales for the toy reached $200 million in 1992.
Credit...Alan S. Weiner for The New York TThe engineer developed this mega water gun in his free time while working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. And once the toy, dubbed the Super Soaker, hit shelves in 1990 it's popularity skyrocketed. In 2017, Forbes reported that it had earned over $1 billion in retail salesDid you ever enjoy water gun fights as a kid? Well, meet Lonnie Johnson, the man that gave us the most famous water gun — the Super Soaker. Lonnie wasn’t a toymaker, he was actually an Aerospace Engineer for NASA 
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