(Black PR Wire) The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has awarded Dr. Rebecca Harris-Smith the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest international distinction...

The legislation President Donald Trump signed into law on July 4—celebrated by Republican Sen. Tim Scott as a milestone of “fiscal responsibility” and “opportunity”—is,...

(Dallas College) — Dallas College is proud to an​nounce that Dr. Madeline Burillo-Hopkins was unanimously elected to serve on the Council for Higher Education...

People in the News

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

People in the News

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Black History Spotlight for August 31: Henry Blair

Henry Blair was born around 1807 in Montgomery County, Maryland. On August 31, 1836, he received a patent for a cotton planter. His first invention was a seed planter, in which he received a patent for on October 14, 1834.

Blair was the only inventor to be identified in the Patent Office records as “a colored man.”

Henry Blair was the second black inventor to receive a patent the first was Thomas Jennings who received a patent in 1821 for a dry cleaning process.

Henry Blair signed his patents with an “x” because he could not write.