BUILT BY GENIUS
The modern world runs on Black invention it rarely credits: the carbon filament that made electric light affordable, refrigerated trucking, home security, laser cataract surgery, core patents inside the first IBM PC. These inventors owned ideas — and many built companies around them.
INVENTOR
Garrett Morgan was an inventor and entrepreneur whose work included a safety hood, an early traffic-signal design, a newspaper, and personal-care business ventures. He is a strong example of invention paired with business ownership.
Source: National Inventors Hall of FameINVENTOR
Frederick McKinley Jones helped transform refrigerated transport, changing how food and medicine could move safely across long distances. His work belongs in the business story because infrastructure is part of commerce.
Source: National Inventors Hall of FameINVENTOR
Marie Van Brittan Brown co-invented an early home-security system with camera monitoring and remote door control. Her work points toward safety, technology, and everyday problem-solving.
Source: Lemelson-MITINVENTOR
Lewis Latimer improved the carbon filament that made electric light practical and affordable, and drafted the patent drawings for Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. His career shows Black technical excellence at the center of the inventions that built the modern world.
Source: National Inventors Hall of FameINVENTOR
Dr. Patricia Bath invented the Laserphaco Probe for cataract surgery and became the first Black woman physician to receive a medical patent. She also co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness.
Source: National Inventors Hall of FameINVENTOR
George Washington Carver's agricultural research at Tuskegee transformed farming economics across the South, developing hundreds of products and teaching crop rotation that restored exhausted land. He turned science into economic self-determination for Black farmers.
Source: National Inventors Hall of FameINVENTOR
Called the "Black Edison," Granville T. Woods earned dozens of patents, including the multiplex telegraph that let moving trains communicate — and he founded his own company to develop and sell his inventions rather than give them away.
Source: National Inventors Hall of FameINVENTOR
Elijah McCoy's automatic lubricator kept steam engines running without stopping — imitated so often that buyers demanded "the real McCoy." Born to parents who escaped slavery, he kept inventing for five decades and formed his own manufacturing company.
Source: National Inventors Hall of FameINVENTOR
Jan Ernst Matzeliger invented the shoe-lasting machine, which attached soles to uppers automatically and transformed shoemaking from a hand craft into an industry — cutting the cost of shoes for everyone.
Source: National Inventors Hall of FameINVENTOR
A NASA engineer who worked on the Galileo mission, Lonnie Johnson invented the Super Soaker — one of the best-selling toys in history — and used the proceeds to fund his own research companies developing next-generation energy technology. Invention, ownership, reinvestment.
Source: National Inventors Hall of FameINVENTOR
Computer engineer Mark Dean co-invented core architecture of the original IBM personal computer and holds three of its nine foundational patents. He became IBM's first Black Fellow — proof that the machines on our desks carry Black engineering inside them.
Source: National Inventors Hall of FameINVENTOR
Chemist Percy Julian pioneered the synthesis of medical compounds from plants, opening the door to affordable treatments including cortisone precursors. He then founded Julian Laboratories, turning world-class chemistry into a thriving Black-owned business.
Source: National Inventors Hall of FameKEEP THE THREAD
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