Black Innovation: Learning From The Past

By Ronald Roach

If it weren't for Black History Month, it's unlikely that a significant number of Americans would ever come across the names of individuals such as Granville T. Woods, Garrett Morgan, Jan Ernst Matzeliger and Elijah McCoy. These individuals, who lived largely during the 19th century, are the best known figures among African Americans who distinguished themselves as inventors in American history.
Their legacy, sporadically celebrated each February, has long represented an opportunity for scholars to paint a fuller picture of the history of technology in America. Though the deeds of Black inventors have been often popularized anecdotally in magazine articles, Black History Month advertisements, lectures and radio programs, very little scholarship has documented the deeper social and economic context of their lives and the impact of their inventions, according to experts.
"These inventors were not anomalies. They came out of a tradition. These were African Americans who were crafts (persons) who had skills," says Dr. Spencer Crew, executive director and CEO of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.
Scholars are beginning to recognize that exploring African American contributions to the nation's technology base also means exploring early African American social status as active participants in the making of American society. It is felt that public scholarship, typically embodied by history museum exhibitions, and public interest stoked by events, such as Black History Month, have been setting the stage for the academy to take greater interest in Black American contributions in technology.
Further, some believe that a deeper understanding of Black innovation in American history might prove useful to policy-makers, educators and corporate leaders who are struggling to bring more American-born minorities into high-tech occupations and ownership. As in the 19th century, today's digital revolution revolves around issues of citizenship and preparation for participating in a technologically driven economy.
"I think that with studying the past you get a better perspective on how you got to the present," says Crew, who curated the groundbreaking "Field to Factory" exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington.