Over the years, African Americans have contributed numerous inventions to the world. These inventions have drastically changed the world from the three-way traffic light to the feeding tube. However, many African American inventors have been forgotten over the years, overlooked by other (often white) inventors. In honor of Black History Month, here is a list of history’s forgotten African American inventors.
Lonnie George Johnson – Inventor of the Water Gun
Born October 6, 1949, Lonnie George Johnson’s mind never stopped questioning how things worked. As a young child, he tinkered with toys, constantly taking them apart to see what they looked like inside. Later, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from Tuskegee University. After college, Johnson began working for the U.S. Air Force before becoming a NASA engineer.
Despite his extensive work for NASA, Johnson is most famous for inventing the water gun. In 1989, Johnson created the “Super Soaker,” the first toy water gun. A few years later, he updated the toy, replacing it with the Nerf projectile. Today, Nerf guns are some of the most popular children’s toys, generating more than a billion dollars in sales.
Bessie Blount Griffin – Inventor of the Feeding Tube
Bessie Blount Griffin overcame constant challenges to her education and, against all odds, became a successful nurse, physical therapist, inventor, and forensic scientist. Griffin started her career as a physical therapist, helping World War II soldiers who returned from the war as amputees. Later, Griffin began working as a nurse at the Bronx Hospital in New York. Here, she created an electric feeding tube to help amputees eat without arms.
Griffin pursued a career as a forensic scientist, and she proved to be a vital asset to law enforcement agencies. She was even hired to work for the Metropolitan Police in London. Griffin had one of the most successful careers for African American women at the time, and her contributions have continued to shape the medical world.
Mark E. Dean – Inventor of the ISA Bus and Colored Computer Monitor
Mark E. Dean was born on March 2, 1957. He has always had a passion for engineering, especially computer engineering. In high school, Dean even made his own computer! Dean studied electrical engineering in college before getting a job at IBM, an American technology company.
While working at IBM, Dean developed the ISA bus with his partner Dennis Moeller. The ISA bus is a part of a computer that allows you to link other devices to the computer. Dean went on to develop the IBM PC and the first-ever gigahertz computer chip. He now holds over 20 patents, but his most groundbreaking invention is the colored computer monitor, one of today’s most commonly used inventions.
Judy W. Reed – Inventor of the Dough Kneader and Roller
Very little is known about Judy W. Reed, but historians believe she was the first African American woman to receive a U.S. patent. As a poor African American woman with little education, records show that Reed and her husband were illiterate. That’s why her patent is signed with an “X” and why she has often been overlooked in history. In 1884, Reed received a patent for the dough kneader and roller. Her technological advancement has helped improve baker jobs and make baking more convenient for everyone.
Garret Morgan – Inventor of the Three-Way Traffic Light
Born in 1877, Garret Morgan was the son of formerly enslaved people. Like many African American children growing up during this time, Morgan was forced to quit school at a young age to work full-time. He spent most of his teenage years working as a handyman for a Cincinnati landowner. In 1895, Morgan moved to Cleveland and began working with sewing machines, which sparked his interest in mechanics.
Morgan later opened a sewing machine shop and a clothing store with his wife. Eventually, Morgan began to explore mechanics beyond sewing machines. He created the “smoke hood,” which was the first breathing device. The invention is a hood that surrounds the user’s head with an air filter at the mouth that connects to the outside atmosphere.
However, Morgan’s most famous invention is the three-way traffic light. Designed in 1923, it has been in use for over a century and has significantly shaped our lives today.
Marian Croak – Inventor of Voice Over Protocol
Born May 14, 1955, Marian Croak was interested in science from an early age. Her father was a handyman, so Croak learned about the inner workings of things like plumbing and electricity at an early age. She went to college at Princeton University and got her PhD at the University of Southern California, where she studied Social Psychology and Quantitative Analysis. After college, she worked for Bell’s Human Factors before eventually working for AT&T.
She first patented the voice-over-IP (VoIP) at AT&T. This invention has significantly improved communication, allowing users to make phone calls over the Internet instead of using traditional phone lines.
Today, Croak is the Vice President of Engineering at Google. In 2022, she was even inducted into the National Inventor Hall of Fame for her work with VoIP.
Alexander Miles – Inventor of the Automatically Opening and Closing Elevator
Alexander Miles was born on May 18, 1838, in Ohio. He earned a living as a barber for almost his entire life, only working with mechanics on the side. 1887, Miles was granted a patent to create the first-ever automatic opening and closing elevator doors. Many speculate that Miles was inspired to create this mechanism after his daughter, Grace, had a near-fatal accident and fell down an elevator shaft. Miles’ invention has greatly improved the safety and convenience of the elevator, which is still in use today.
Sarah Boone – Inventor of the Modern Ironing Board
Before Sarah Boone, dressmakers primarily ironed clothing on a wooden plank placed across two chairs. But in 1892, Boone changed the world of fashion forever. As a dressmaker and mother of eight, Boone spent much of her time ironing. She realized that the current ironing method was inefficient because every time she shifted the garment, it would get wrinkled, ruining her hard work. That’s when Boone decided to experiment with her own to improve the ironing board. Boone’s ironing board was a narrower, curved board that allowed the ironer to move the garment without wrinkling. The board was also padded, which helped make storage easier. She obtained a patent for her invention in 1892 and is regarded as the second African American woman to attain a patent officially.
Madam C.J. Walker – Inventor of the “Walker System” of Hair Care
Madam C. J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867, grew up an orphan. She spent most of her early life working as a domestic servant. Around 1904, she began working as a commission agent for an African American haircare company. Breedlove had suffered from severe dandruff and balding her entire life, so when she started learning more about haircare, she was immediately enthralled. She took her newfound knowledge about haircare and created her own product line.
In 1906, she began working as an independent hairdresser and haircare retailer, marketing herself as “Madame C.J. Walker.” She sold her products by going door-to-door and teaching African Americans how to style their hair. Walker designed a new system of doing hair to promote hair growth and condition the scalp, called the “Walker System.” Today, Walker’s contributions are still used, and African American women around the globe have access to her products.
