African-American Inventor
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This list of African Americans inventors and scientists documents many of the African-Americans who have invented a multitude of items or made discoveries in the course of their lives. These have ranged from practical everyday devices to applications and scientific discoveries in diverse fields, including physics, biology, math, and medicine. African-Americans have been the victims of oppression, discrimination and persecution throughout American history, with an impact on African-American innovation. A 2014 study by economist
Lisa D. Cook Lisa DeNell Cook is an American economist who has served as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors since May 23, 2022. She is the first African American woman and first woman of color to sit on the Board. Cook previously was a profess ...
linked violence towards African-Americans and lack of legal protections over the period 1870–1940 to lower innovation. Despite this, many black innovators have been responsible for a large number of major inventions. Among the earliest was
George Washington Carver George Washington Carver ( 1864 – January 5, 1943) was an American agricultural scientist and inventor who promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion. He was one of the most prominent black scientists of the ea ...
, whose reputation was based on his
research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...
into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, which aided in nutrition for farm families. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of other products to improve their way of life. The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes using peanuts.Carver, George Washington. 1916
"How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption"
Tuskegee Institute Experimental Station Bulletin 31. He also developed and promoted about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm. He received numerous honors for his work, including the
Spingarn Medal The Spingarn Medal is awarded annually by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for an outstanding achievement by an African American. The award was created in 1914 by Joel Elias Spingarn Joel Elias Spingarn (May ...
of the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
. A later renowned scientist was
Percy Lavon Julian Percy Lavon Julian (April 11, 1899 – April 19, 1975) was an American research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine and was a pioneer in ...
, a research chemist and a pioneer in the
chemical synthesis As a topic of chemistry, chemical synthesis (or combination) is the artificial execution of chemical reactions to obtain one or several products. This occurs by physical and chemical manipulations usually involving one or more reactions. In moder ...
of medicinal
drugs A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalat ...
from plants. He was the first to synthesize the natural product
physostigmine Physostigmine (also known as eserine from ''éséré'', the West African name for the Calabar bean) is a highly toxic parasympathomimetic alkaloid, specifically, a reversible cholinesterase inhibitor. It occurs naturally in the Calabar bean and ...
, and a pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of the human hormones,
steroids A steroid is a biologically active organic compound with four rings arranged in a specific molecular configuration. Steroids have two principal biological functions: as important components of cell membranes that alter membrane fluidity; and a ...
,
progesterone Progesterone (P4) is an endogenous steroid and progestogen sex hormone involved in the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and embryogenesis of humans and other species. It belongs to a group of steroid hormones called the progestogens and is the m ...
, and
testosterone Testosterone is the primary sex hormone and anabolic steroid in males. In humans, testosterone plays a key role in the development of Male reproductive system, male reproductive tissues such as testes and prostate, as well as promoting secondar ...
, from
plant sterols Phytosterols are phytosteroids, similar to cholesterol, that serve as structural components of biological membranes of plants. They encompass plant sterols and stanol ester, stanols. More than 250 sterols and related compounds have been identified ...
such as
stigmasterol Stigmasterol – a plant sterol (''phytosterol'') – is among the most abundant of plant sterols, having a major function to maintain the structure and physiology of cell membranes. In the European Union, it is a food additive listed with E numb ...
and sitosterol. His work would lay the foundation for the steroid drug industry's production of
cortisone Cortisone is a pregnene (21-carbon) steroid hormone. It is a naturally-occurring corticosteroid metabolite that is also used as a pharmaceutical prodrug; it is not synthesized in the adrenal glands. Cortisol is converted by the action of the enzy ...
, other
corticosteroid Corticosteroids are a class of steroid hormones that are produced in the adrenal cortex of vertebrates, as well as the synthetic analogues of these hormones. Two main classes of corticosteroids, glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids, are involv ...
s, and
birth control pill The combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), often referred to as the birth control pill or colloquially as "the pill", is a type of birth control that is designed to be taken orally by women. The pill contains two important hormones: progest ...
s. A contemporary example of a modern-day inventor is Lonnie George Johnson, an engineer. Johnson invented the
Super Soaker Super Soaker is an American brand of recreational water gun that uses manually-pressurized air to shoot water with greater power, range, and accuracy than conventional squirt pistols. The Super Soaker was invented in 1989 by engineer Lonnie Joh ...
water gun, which was the top-selling toy in the United States from 1991 to 1992. In 1980 Johnson formed his own law firm and licensed the Super Soaker water gun to Larami Corporation. Two years later, the Super Soaker generated over $200 million in retail sales and became the best selling toy in America. Larami Corporation was eventually purchased by
Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...
, the second largest toy manufacturer in the world. Over the years, Super Soaker sales have totaled close to one billion dollars. Johnson reinvested a majority of his earnings from the Super Soaker into research and development for his energy technology companies – "It's who I am, it's what I do." As of 2019, Johnson holds over 120 patents, with more pending, and is the author of several publications on spacecraft power systems.Roche, Timothy
Soaking In Success
''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', December 4, 2000.Products Created by Independent Inventors
, April 2, 2009, ''Inventors Digest''.


See also

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Lists of African Americans This is a list of African Americans, also known as Black Americans or Afro-Americans. African Americans are an ethnic group consisting of Americans, citizens of the United States who have full or partial ancestry of any Black people, black racia ...
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List of inventors This is a list of notable inventors. Alphabetical list A * Vitaly Abalakov (1906–1986), Russia – camming devices, Abalakov thread (or V-thread), gearless ice climbing anchor * Ernst Karl Abbe (1840–1905), Germany – Condenser (microscop ...
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History of United States patent law The history of United States patent law started even before the U.S. Constitution was adopted, with some state-specific patent laws. The history spans over more than three centuries. Background The oldest form of a patent was seen in Medieval ti ...
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Lemelson–MIT Prize The Lemelson-MIT Program awards several prizes yearly to inventors in the United States. The largest is the Lemelson–MIT Prize which was endowed in 1994 by Jerome H. Lemelson, funded by the Lemelson Foundation, and is administered through the Sc ...
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NASA spinoff NASA spinoff technologies are commercial products and services which have been developed with the help of NASA, through research and development contracts, such as Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or STTR awards, licensing of NASA patents ...
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National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also opera ...
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Science and technology in the United States Science and technology in the United States has a long history, producing many important figures and developments in the field. The United States of America came into being around the Age of Enlightenment (1685 to 1815), an era in Western ph ...
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Technological and industrial history of the United States The technological and industrial history of the United States describes the United States' emergence as one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world. The availability of land and literate labor, the absence of a landed arist ...
* Timeline of United States discoveries *
Timeline of United States inventions The following articles cover the timeline of United States inventions: *Timeline of United States inventions (before 1890), before the turn of the century * Timeline of United States inventions (1890–1945), before World War II *Timeline of Unite ...
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United States patent law Under United States law, a patent is a right granted to the inventor of a (1) process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, (2) that is new, useful, and non-obvious. A patent is the right to exclude others, for a limited ...
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United States Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...
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Yankee ingenuity Yankee ingenuity is a self-made stereotype of inventiveness, technical solutions to practical problems, "know-how", self-reliance and individual enterprise associated with the Yankees, who originated in New England and developed much of the indust ...
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African American women in computer science African-American women in computer science were among early pioneers in computing in the United States, and there are notable African-American women working in computer science. History African-American women were hired as mathematicians to do ...
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African-American women in medicine African-American women have been practicing medicine informally in the contexts of midwifery and herbalism for centuries. Those skilled as midwives, like Biddy Mason, worked both as slaves and as free women in their trades. Others, like Susie ...
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List of African-American women in STEM fields The following is a list of notable African-American women who have made contributions to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. An excerpt from 1998 issue of Black Issues in Higher Education by Juliane Malveauxreads: ...
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List of African-American mathematicians The bestselling book and film, ''Hidden Figures'', celebrated the role of African-American women mathematicians in the space race, and the barriers they had to overcome to study and pursue a career in mathematics and related fields. Although much ...
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List of African scientists, inventors, and scholars This is a list of African educators, scientists and scholars who were born or active on the African continent. North Africa Egypt * Imhotep fl. (2667–2611 BC), Egyptian polymath * Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905), Egyptian jurist, religious schola ...
* African-American dance *
Asian Americans in science and technology Asian Americans have made many notable contributions to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Chien-Shiung Wu was known to many scientists as the "First Lady of Physics" and played a pivotal role in experimentally demo ...


References


External links


The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences

The Black Inventor Online Museum



Black Lives in Astronomy: Guide to Black Astronomers

Top List of Black Inventions That Changed The World
{{DEFAULTSORT:African-American Inventors And Scientists Inventors
Inventors An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
Lists of inventors