By Sister Shirley Tarpley
We continue to address the importance of Black women in America and honor the spirit of possibility and hope set in motion by generations of Black women and their encouragement of dreams.
Ruane Jeter invented a digital Toaster in 1987. Virgie Ammons invented a Fireplace Damper actuating tool in 1975. The instrument opens and closes a fireplace damper and is also intended to operate as a securing means to prevent fluttering of the damper due to wind.
Marie Van Brittan Brown invented the Video Home Security System that utilized television surveillance in 1969.
While home security systems today are more advanced than ever, back in 1966 the idea for a home surveillance device seemed almost unthinkable. That was the year famous African-American inventor Marie Van Brittan Brown, and her partner Albert Brown, applied for an invention patent for a closed-circuit television security system – the forerunner to the modern home security system.
Brown’s system had a set of four peep holes and a camera that could slide up and down to look out each one. Anything the camera picked up would appear on a monitor. An additional feature of Brown’s invention was that a person also could unlock a door with a remote control.
A female Black inventor far ahead of her time, Brown created an invention that was the first in a long string of home-security inventions that continue to flood the market today.
Alice Parker in 1919 from Morristown, New Jersey invented a new and improved gas heating furnace that provided central heating.
Valerie Thomas received U.S. patent #4,229,761 on October 21, 1980 for her illusion transmitter. This futuristic invention extends the idea of television, with its images located flatly behind a screen, to having three dimensional projections appear as though they were right in your living room.
Thomas worked as a mathematical data analyst for NASA after receiving a degree in physics. She later served as project manager for the development of NASA’s image-processing system on Landsat, the first satellite to send images from outer space. In addition to having worked on several other high-profile NASA projects, Thomas continues to be an outspoken advocate for minority rights.
Mahalia Jackson, “Queen of Gospel Music.” She received national recognition by appearing at Carnegie Hall. She sang at the “March on Washington” in 1963 and at the funeral for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Roberta Martin was the operator of her own “Gospel Music Publishing House.” Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a Gospel Singer that was known for her signature guitar style; she also introduced gospel music into nightclubs as well as concert halls. Jackson, Martin and Tharpe all had U. S. postage stamps issued in their honor in 1998.
Ethel Payne, a longtime correspondent and columnist for the Chicago Defender who pioneered foreign affairs coverage in the Black press. Payne, a Chicago native, first went overseas as a reporter in 1955 to cover an international conference in Indonesia. She interviewed Chinese Premier Chou Lai, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, among others. In the 1970s, she was featured on the CBS program “Spectrum.” She worked as a broadcast commentator into the 1980s
Wilma Rudolph, “The World’s Fastest Woman,” as a child suffered from polio and wore leg braces for years, she won three gold medals in sprint events at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Italy.
Evelyn Ashford, winner of four Olympic gold medals in 1984, 1988, and 1982. Also won a silver medal in 1988 and was inducted into Track and Field and Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.
Lucy Craft Laney, (1854 – 1933); She was born a slave in Macon, GA. She became Founder/Principal of Haines Normal Institute in GA. Laney was taught to read and write at the age of four by her master’s sister, who helped her attend Atlanta University. When funds promised from the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedom did not materialized for a private school for Blacks, Laney raised the money herself. Her school was opened in 1886. In 1975, it had grown to a prospering educational community of over 1,000 students.
