Quick!. Name off the first few inventors that come to mind.
Who did you come up with? Were they all white? (Rhetorical question, you don’t have to answer in the comments unless you want to.)
Most of our exposure to inventors is to white men. Granted, many of the most famous changed our way of life dramatically like Thomas Edison. We may get exposure to some black inventors during a quick lesson for Black History Month, but mostly we don’t hear about people like the below who invented some pretty amazing things, several of which our society uses on a daily basis.
- Patricia Bath - laser cataract removal
- Otis Boykin - control unit for the pacemaker
- Gerald A. Lawson - home gaming console
- Garrett Morgan - automated traffic signal
- George Carruthers - UV camera used by NASA in the 1972 Apollo 16 flight
- Marie Van Brittan Brown and Albert Brown - home security system
- Bessie Blount - various devices that assist amputees in daily life
Do yourself (and your kids) a favor and go research some inventors of color. Here are a few starting points.
http://atlantablackstar.com/2013/10/23/100-black-inventions-over-the-last-100-years-you-may-not-know-part-1/
http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/inventions/10-inventions-by-african-mericans.htm
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/inventors/
http://www.biography.com/people/groups/famous-black-inventors
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