Innovation has been embedded in the very DNA of Black people everywhere for centuries. From making light shine to creating more efficient processes and a variety of gadgets that have revolutionized how we live life, Black people have forged many inventions using the fortitude found throughout our history.
Often in our past, the deficit of representation, ongoing oppression, and sheer genius have conjured inspiration to make things that had not previously existed. There have also been times when our creations have gone uncredited or without proper recognition.
In recent years, the patent system in the US started tackling the striking underrepresentation of Black inventors in patent ownership. The racist roots of the system stem back to the 1850s when slave owners could receive patent ownership on behalf of the enslaved person who actually made the invention, building a pipeline of erasure. The racist practices of the system continued well into the 1900s when Jim Crow-era laws prevented Black inventors from obtaining patents from all-white attorneys’ offices.
The result of this institutionalized racism is the absence of Black inventors in patent ownership now. Barriers such as the cost of obtaining a patent, lack of access to the process of obtaining a patent, and a lack of representation among science, math, information, engineering, and technology fields have all contributed to the decline in Black patent ownership.
Despite the setbacks and erasure, history remembers some of the inventors who changed all of our lives.
These are 10 inventions created by Black investors we all use every day.
Carbon Filament for the Incandescent Light Bulb invented by Lewis Latimer
Lewis Latimer was born in 1848 in Massachusetts to parents who’d escaped slavery in Virginia. He taught himself mechanical drawing and landed a position at the Crosby and Gould patent law office, where his talent was recognized. As a result of…
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