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Black inventors and innovators the history books ignored

Unsung innovators of colour
Middle Stone Age African people: bed, c. 198,000 BC
Middle Stone Age African people: paint production and chemistry, c. 98,000 BC
Middle Stone Age African people: harpoon, c. 88,000 BC
Middle Stone Age African people: jewellery, c. 73,000 BC
Middle Stone Age African people: abstract art and mathematics, c. 71,000 BC
Middle Stone Age African people: root of all global languages, c. 68,000 BC – 48,000 BC
Middle Stone Age African people: sewing needle, c. 63,000 BC – 57,000 BC
Middle Stone Age African people: arrowhead, c. 61,000 BC
Middle Stone Age African people: tallying and calculation, c. 41,000 BC
Middle Stone Age African people: mining, c. 40,000 BC
The Dogon people: Sirius B star, 3,200 BC
The Haya people: steel, 400 BC
The Nubian people: antibiotics, 350 AD
The Edo people: public street lighting, 1400s or before
Onesimus: inoculation, 1716
Sam and his father: cotton gin, 1793
Thomas Jennings: dry cleaning, 1820
Jo Anderson: mechanical reaper, 1831
Benjamin Montgomery: improved steam propeller, 1850s
Lewis Latimer: carbon light bulb filament, 1881
Sarah Goode: sofa bed precursor, 1883
Garrett Morgan: gas mask, 1912
Alice Ball: first successful leprosy treatment, 1916
Dr Charles Drew: blood plasma preservation, 1938
Frederick McKinley Jones: mobile refrigeration, 1938
Mary Kenner: sanitary belt, 1956
Otis Boykin: wire precision resistor, 1959
Marie Van Brittan Brown and Albert Brown: CCTV home security system, 1966
Valerie Thomas: 3D film, 3D TV and medical imaging precursor, 1976
Patricia Bath: laser cataract removal device, 1986
Philip Emeagwali: linked supercomputer system, 1989
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Unsung innovators of colour

Black visionaries have made an invaluable contribution to the progress of humanity but are all too often ignored due to overt racism at worst and unconscious bias at best. Looking back over the centuries, we shine a light on the innovators of colour who have never really received the respect and recognition they deserve. Click or scroll through to learn more.
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Daniel Coughlin

26 August 2020

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