The Untold Stories of Excellence: From a Life of Despair and Uncertainty to One That Offers Hope and a New Beginning

THE UNTOLD STORIES

OF EXCELLENCE

From a Life of Despair and

Uncertainty to One that Offers Hope

and a New Beginning

CHARLES E. SHAW

Copyright © 2011 by Charles E. Shaw.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011909863

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4628-8835-1

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter I Inventors / Discoverers

Chapter II Scientists / Educators

Chapter III Writers/Educators/Authors

Chapter IV Musicians/Singers

Chapter V Professional Athletes/Sports

Chapter VI Social & Political Activism

Chapter VII Legal & Political Figures

Chapter VIII Business

Chapter IX Comedians/Actors/Actresses

Chapter X Military Activism/Achievements

Chapter XI Nasa / Space Exploration

Chapter XII Medicine

Chapter XIII Media / Broadcasting

Chapter XIV Artists/ Sculptors

Chapter XV A Special Tribute To O. W. Gurley, An African-American Businessman & Pioneer In Tulsa, Oklahoma

DEDICATION

Much of what we are to discuss or to reveal in the pages of this book have yet to be truly considered or to be openly discussed as important elements of that which identifies the missing or misguided records of a historic nature and/or that which may be related to other important events and issues that have occurred in America’s development as an emerging and engaging nation in the eyes of the developing free world. Now, because of this historic fact and that of other relevant and important considerations that may otherwise require the clarification of history and/or the full disclosure of past historians, it is incumbent upon me as a member of the African-American community and that of a descendant of African Slaves to bring out the truth and to make this truth known to the readers of this book, known to the general public, and known to the world at-large that there were and are many past historic events and unacknowledged contributions that African-Americans have made and continue to make to and in America.

Unfortunately, many of this country’s past and present historians have either knowingly or inadvertently failed America as a nation and that of its people when they neglected or failed to seriously consider or to include the historic data that would otherwise exonerate the African-American of any of the inappropriate past charges of being inferior and to conversely reinforce what he/she has achieved to make his/her deeds relevant to the contributions that each one has made and continue to make as important parts of this nation’s development in the history books that are written and their contents used to enlighten and to educate students and the general public about factual and more inclusive historic facts about this nation and that of those who have become an integral and indispensable part of the progress of this nation as serious contributors to its foundation, formation, and development, and who continues to contribute to the country’s internal as well as its external development as a forward thinking nation in the eyes of the free world.

I must reiterate the fact that it is important to know that many past historians have made a conscious but inappropriate decision to knowingly exclude the attributes and the achievements of the unsung African-American heroes and the contributions they have made and continue to make to America’s diverse and progressive development as a nation. The fact that this extremely important information was excluded or purposely omitted from the history books in the past precludes that which could have otherwise been shown to the contrary to be pertinent and to have resulted from an appropriate education and what it would have been able to offer and to provide as an essential part of that which is used to strengthen the prospects and probable achievements of the African-American. In addition, these unfortunate decisions have prevented the unsung heroes from receiving long overdue recognition and credit for many of the things that they have otherwise achieved or have been engaged in directly or indirectly as scientific discoverers, as creators, as explorers, as innovators, as producers, and as cultural developers that have played and continue to play a major role in the historic development of this country and the free world, and that of the things this country’s citizens have produced.

This known fact should be enough to make it possible to hold many of the historians accountable and responsible for producing and/or disseminating inappropriate information or misinformation, which has been used in the past to prevent the general public, both from a domestic and international perspective, from learning and knowing the real and absolute truth about many of the different events or things that have taken place during this country’s development as a nation. This behavior has sent a clear and unmistakable message to those who would otherwise weigh in on the subject in the history books to justify their actions and what had been written and intentionally omitted in them to mislead the world about the African-American community in this country, and more than that, to misuse the same misinformation or disinformation to distort the facts about them and their intelligence in order to manipulate conditions and to precondition the mindset of the African-American community and other members of the general public to think that they are less than what they are truly capable of achieving. Faking and/or misusing the truth distorts our perception, our understanding, and our appreciation of America’s past and its history, which in many respects are grossly exaggerated and misleading to all concerned here in American and in the world community.

In the framework of this book, the information that it shares is put forth to do what we have not been able to do in the past to openly refute or to disprove what had already been said in the past and to undo what had already been purposely and conveniently omitted from the history books for so long to the detriment of the African-American community, and to contradict that which represents miscommunication and the distortion of facts and the unacknowledged facts and truths about the African-Americans and the many over looked contributions they have made to this nation’s past, present, and to its future. With that which is identified and revealed in the pages of this book, the general public will now be able to learn and to know the truth from the facts of a modified, but true history that was once withheld and concealed from America’s evolving general public and the world at-large, and more than that, to set the record straight. Fortunately, the once unknown facts and truths about the contributions that were made by the unsung African-American heroes will now be revealed and brought out into the open and dealt with accordingly and appropriately by the dedication of this book and that of the acknowledgement and citing of the many untold achievements and accomplishments of the African-Americans throughout America’s history.

At different intervening times in the historic development of this country, the unsung heroes saw a greater importance and need in what they were doing than that which had already been disseminated and experienced as descendants of African slaves. In spite of their many daunting experiences with prejudice and discrimination as African-Americans, the unsung heroes saw the need to dedicate much of their time, much of their professionalism, much of their individual lives, much of their energy, and much of that of their internal intellectual capital, abilities, and beliefs toward this country’s development as pioneers, explorers, scientists, inventors, innovators, businessmen, politicians, educators, doctors, lawyers, soldiers, entertainers, and as members of religious and/or secular groups alike as part of that which connects them directly and indirectly to the great experiment of this country’s founders. This was happening while these same unsung heroes were acknowledging and otherwise giving due consideration to the fact and understanding that their lineage will forever more be linked to enslaved ancestors, who were forced to come to this country and to work the plantations and the farm lands of America as property, and who have not benefited directly or indirectly from that with which they have developed and contributed historically to the development of this nation.

Notwithstanding that which has been discussed above, it is equally, if not more important to me and to that of other African-Americans that their past and that of their future contributions are expected to be acknowledged to show how their ancestors and descendants alike have been able to reach beyond their ever present plight to accomplish a great deal in America either with or without a dysfunctional family to point them in the right direction of achievement. In this the 21st century, one must consider all things in life and history that continue to affect and to influence the authenticity of achievements and that of their impact on the genuineness of America’s history and those who became a vital part of that history and the truth of all things that were created and contributed to its founding and its development as a new republic and democratic system of government, and that which occurred thereafter in the years and decades that followed to influence those who will be responsible as a people to learn and to use the knowledge to strengthen their resolve to educate themselves, knowing that they too can achieve much in spite of their connection to the past.

Therefore this book is dedicated to the many talented unsung African-American heroes that believed in themselves and their abilities, and who have persevered and refused to capitulate their dreams to that which had otherwise been seen to consume their positive energy, and to let what happened to their African ancestors and themselves, and to prevent that which will otherwise inhibit their desire to learn and to express in their tangible and intangible actions what it is that may otherwise be found in the things they have created or have the potential to create and to benefit mankind without hesitation or reservation.

FOREWORD

As we look back on the history of America, it is without a doubt with a limited knowledge, with a limited understanding, but with an unlimited curiosity as to the importance of a demoralizing legacy that unequivocally links the African-American and his/her ancestors painfully to this country and to that of its tumultuous beginning and past development as a principal pioneer, principal player, and principal leader among nations of the free world.

The events of the past are believed to have led many of this country’s framers and that of its originators alike to the unfortunate choice, to the unfortunate introduction, and to the most unfortunate development of a shared misguided philosophy and belief in servitude, which has led them to carrying out acts of unflattering behavior that were flawed from the beginning and repugnant to the dictates of humanity and morality, and to that which clearly defines a fair and just system of government and a fair-minded people while at the same time being in the midst of a newly planned and developed democratic Republic. Such behavior has left this country and that of its people with an unnerving and indefensible spotted history that continues to cast a wide shadow over the truth about the country’s development as a nation and that with which many of its younger and older descendent citizens alike will have to come to terms with, to deal with, and to live with today and into the foreseeable future.

The reflective nature of the past historic events compels us to focus much of our attention on what may otherwise be described in retrospect, as reprehensible behavior on the part of many of this country’s originators and colonists alike, who at the time, had not only consented to and acquiesced to such behavior, but who had agreed to actively and/or passively participate in it, and to misguidedly advocate, to orchestrate, and to promote an ideology that flagrantly violated the human rights of those who were otherwise taken by force from their native country of West Africa and brought to America to be relegated to the status of slave laborers and as an important part of an ill-conceived system and process that was designed to take away their individual and collective human rights, humanity, and dignity, and replacing them with that which labeled them as chattel and personal property for economic reasons during the initial and subsequent stages of the formation and development of this country.

Needless to say, the actions of the framers and that of the originators of the constitution of this nation, who have engaged in such acts of servitude must be considered at every level of responsibility in the country’s government when we assess and attach responsibility and accountability as a people to their ill-advised and ill-conceived behavior as White colonists and White supremacists and the like who practiced and carried out such dastardly acts against a culturally different and otherwise defenseless people and their descendants. Such behavior, to say the least, shows that certain members of the White European-American ancestry and secondary framers in stature were not kind to descendants of African slaves and certainly not to their forebears as disenfranchised human beings. This was especially true and relevant to the lasting issues and effects of a discouraging legacy and history that was left behind as hidden proof and baggage that must be carried around on the backs of the average African-American as a seemingly insurmountable problem of an unwanted inheritance that permeates America as a society without remedy and/or without resolution.

It is most disturbing to know that the average African-American in this day and age is still not given the proper respect and/or the proper treatment as someone who deserves better after so many decades of enduring many physical and mental hardships in America. Contrary to popular belief, the African-American has incessantly faced problems of a type no other race has ever faced or experienced in this country and even though he/she has continued to do what may be considered to be the right thing, and what may otherwise be necessary to exhibit behavior that might disprove such a notion. The achievements of the African-American may also be used to show a strong sense of worth and to make it quite obvious and clear by the many individual and collective accomplishments that he/she is equally capable of achieving at the highest intellectual level as that which is capable by any other human being on this planet, and simply because of his/her perceived differences and distant attachment to a daunting past that was clearly left behind to identify with and to connect him/her to African ancestors that had the misfortune of being caught up in the hopelessness of a web of slavery in a newly developing country. Make no mistake about it slavery was without a doubt one of the defining moments in America’s history and in its post development as a unifying force behind the Republic and the creation and maintenance of a truly democratic system of government. The unifying effect of the Civil War, be it represented by pro or con of those who participated or stood by on the sideline, such behavior clearly put the country to the test and the wheels of a more unifying system of government in motion that would eventually lead to the development of a country that would at some point become more diversified and unified for all practical purposes to the outside world, and to the extent that should anything threaten this unity in the future, that society members of this country would surely rise up and come together as a nation, despite their differences, to resist and to become combative against any force that might otherwise threaten the fragile unity, the sanctity, and the dedication of this nation. Following a disturbing reconstruction of a coerced lifestyle of our African ancestors and their compulsory contribution to this nation as slaves, we as their descendants have been compelled to bear the burden of the legacy that has been left behind and the not so flattering distinction that it makes, which has evolved during the last three centuries from that which represents ancestral slavery to that which now provides freedom and human rights to descendant citizens of a country that once used force to acquire them as chattel and not that which would have otherwise left it up to them as ancestors to make a voluntary entry into this country on their own to live and to become an essential part thereof as willing entrants or immigrants.

It is important to us as a people to know that from the ashes of slavery sprang a new and more rewarding beginning for those of us whose ancestors were wrongfully and forcibly taken from their homes in Africa to be brought to America to be relegated to a position of servitude and bondage as chattel and personal property of an enslaver. We know from a historic perspective, that in these types of situations, the individual, or the group of individuals, and/or family group members are deprived of their basic freedoms and human rights, which have over an extended period of time changed to set the stage for you and for me to be born into this developing nation as descendants, as distant relatives, and as siblings to emerge from birth as free American citizens capable of owning property in their own right in the same way as that of other ethnic groups and members of society. It is equally important to say that from the ashes of our ancestors sprang events that would enable the emergence of a renewed, of a more invigorated, and a more energized African-American descendant, who has in decades past has taken control of that which was once thought to represent an untenable situation and undefined future for members of the African-American community.

Out of lives that were once thought to be hopelessly unprepared and ill-equipped in the African-American community, came determination, resilience, perseverance, and the desire to be re-awakened as a learned people with ancestors that lost everything to servitude in America during the forced separation and enslavement’s initial introduction and further development of slavery in this country. It is believed that following these historic events, that the spirit in and of our African ancestors have been allowed to re-surface and to be re-born in us as African-American descendants, and to result in the creation of a new renaissance in the American culture. In the spirit and eternal recognition of our African ancestors, it is important to us as African-Americans to continue our struggle against oppression and its impact on the less fortunate and underprivileged in the American or any other society.

Therefore, it is believed that the average African-American deserves a special place in American History, not because he/she is represented as descendants of African slaves, but because of the enormity of the odds placed against them because of this connection, and their ability to continue to struggle, to emerge triumphantly by their resolve and determination to represent the rebirth of a people, who have endured much and who have taken little, to become a vibrant and important part of America’s cultural development as a more ethnically challenged, charged, and diversified nation and leader in the free world. When America’s achievements are to be considered, they must be considered along with the role the descendant African-Americans and their ancestors have played in this process, which must include their many achievements that have gone virtually unnoticed and unacknowledged by White America’s account of history and the contributions made by those who have taken a negative and turned it into a positive, and who continue to love this country despite the mistreatment and classification as that which was considered to be less than that of a human being at one time in the history of this country’s development.

There has never been a people in history who rose above that which created an environment that otherwise treated them as chattel and personal property to become an active member of that society, and to make tangible and intangible contributions as that of the African-Americans, and to do it with such grace and dignity as a people while still living amongst the very descendants of captors who once deprived them and their ancestors of their freedoms and their human rights.

While it may be time for us to move on with our lives beyond the days of despair and hopelessness as African-Americans, it is now time to focus our attention on the future as citizens without leaving their never ending achievements that have helped to move this country forward and to make it more prosperous.

America is a place of many things, where most Americans share the good, the bad, and the ugly of each other, but most of all it is a place where people from every walk of life and from many different nations around the world can come together and to enter the country with a strong sense of hope as citizens with the right to share cultural experiences and differences alike, and to share these hopes and dreams with one another as a new beginning for the future.

INTRODUCTION

To begin this treatise about the African-American and his/her historic development in America, it is important to make note of the fact that there is someone in African-American history who has devoted much of his life to the recordation and preservation of our history for the world to see and to know, and that is Carter G. Woodson, historian, educator, author, and publisher, who was born in 1876 in New Canton, Virginia. He was the son of freed slaves. Carter Woodson worked as a sharecropper and a miner to help his family. Despite his ever present dilemma, he began high school in the late teens and proved to be an excellent student. Carter Woodson went on to college and earned several degrees, including that of a doctorate from Harvard University in 1912, becoming one of the first African-Americans to earn a Ph.D. at the prestigious institution. After finishing his education, he dedicated himself to the field of African-American history, working to make sure that this subject was taught in schools and was studied by scholars. For his efforts, Carter Woodson is often referred to as the Father of black History.

In 1915, Carter Woodson helped to establish the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (which later became the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History). The next year he established the Journal of Negro History, a scholarly publication, which also led to Carter Woodson’s formation of the African-American-owned Associated Publishers Press in 1921, and which produced several of his own works, including The Negro in Our History (1922) and the Mis-education of the Negro (1933).

Carter Woodson lobbied schools and organizations to participate in a special program to encourage the study of African-American history, which began in February 1926 with Negro History Week and was later expanded and renamed Black History Month. To help teachers with African-American studies, he created the Negro History Bulletin in 1937. While Carter Woodson died on April 3, 1950, his work continues on. Every February, students around the United States spend time learning about the subject closest to his heart—African-American history.

Because of Carter Woodson’s efforts as a pioneer is recording African-American history, it is now believed to be appropriate to begin our look into the areas of African-American history, with the inclusion of that which is identified and discussed relative to that of Carter Woodson’s dedication and exploits as a historian, who is otherwise known to be the Father of Black History and as the one person who had been convinced that it was fundamental to the development of African-American individuals to know their roots and who despite their development circumstances, are representative of more than that which meets the naked eye, and are capable of proving to others that they are more than the color of their skin and to the continuity of this country. He is credited with giving the average African-American that which links him/her with others of the same ethnicity, and the continuity of this country.

CHAPTER I

INVENTORS / DISCOVERERS

This chapter identifies and acknowledges many of the contributions that have been made during the historic development of this nation that we cannot afford to overlook, because they represent areas in and of our history that this country continues to embrace and to use as key elements of a strong foundation that helped to revolutionize and to help get this nation going creatively and innovatively. In these areas of development the ingenuity of the contributing individuals helped to set the stage in many respects for future growth and progress as a nation and contributors to the well being of this country and that of the free world.

In a general since, there have been many events in America’s past that deserve to be recorded in the history books to accurately show and to reflect the mind-set, the changing conditions, the positive results of revolutionizing research, experiments, and discoveries that have been made by African-Americans and other ethnic groups today and in times gone by that otherwise merit the acknowledgement and recognition by White-Americans and African-Americans alike, and the general public as important contributors to the development of this country and its people.

A good many of these historic events are believed to be suitable for that which is said to represent significant disclosure of pertinent information about the past. The significance of this information is realized from that which is recorded in the pages of this book, and which is designed to show who, what, where and how the past events have in some way influenced the behavior and course of history and in many respects set the stage for this country’s future development. In many cases this type of information reflects the potential importance of the events and the impact these events have had or will have on the country’s development as a nation and those responsible as principals for performing the activities, and in this case, to show the contributions that the unsung African-American heroes are making to this nation.

In the past there have been little or no information or discussion in the history books to show or to acknowledge the fact that African-Americans have a long and enduring history of being instrumental and inspirational in making significant contributions to the overall development of this nation with their individual efforts or collaborative creations, inventions, discoveries, innovations, and developments of tangible tools or processes that are used to collectively create better living and working conditions for them and other American people or industries from around the world as well. What these unsung heroes have done is to achieve the impossible, especially, when you consider the fact that they have come from unpardonable and indefensible circumstances in their lives that would otherwise lead us to believe that the overwhelming odds of the difficulties they have faced and experienced in their lives would force them to point their talents in a different direction than that which might have otherwise been considered to be followed.

In fact, what these individuals have done is not to Walla in the doldrums of their dilemma and despair, but were more incline to take it for what it represented at the time, and to turn this seemingly impossible situation into something positive that they believed could be improved upon and used to make not only their lives betters, but to offer and to provide America and its people with something of a different point of view and with tools that could be helpful to the whole of the American society, and to do it with such dignity, grace, and without anger or recrimination for what had been forced upon them as descendants and extensions of African slaves.

This chapter shows what, how, when, and where certain contri- butions were made to this country and their importance to certain economic conditions and circumstances in the country at the time. To begin this historic journey and discussion, it is thought to be pertinent to the discourse of this material to sequentially begin the process of talking about and reviewing what the African-American inventors and other discoverers thought to represent importance to the country’s development:

George Edward Alcorn, Jr. (1940-Present), is a pioneering African-American physicist and inventor. He was born on March 22, 1940, to George and Arietta Dixon Alcorn, in Miami, Florida where he was raised.

Alcorn received a four-year academic scholarship to Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he graduated with a Bachelor degree in Physics and earned a Master of Science in Nuclear Physics in 1963 from Howard University, after nine months of study. During the summers of 1962 and 1963, George Alcorn worked on the computer analysis of launch trajectories and orbital mechanics for Rockwell International, including the Titan I and II, Saturn IV, and the Nova.

In 1967, Alcorn earned a Ph.D. in Atomic and Molecular Physics from Howard University. Between 1965 and 1967 Alcorn conducted research on negative ion formation under a NASA sponsored grant. Dr. Alcorn holds eight patents in the United States and Europe on semiconductor technology, one of which is a method of fabricating an imaging X-ray spectrometer. His area of research includes: adaptation of chemical ionization mass spectrometers for the detection of amino acids and development of other experimental methods for planetary life detection; classified research involved with missile reentry and missile defense, design and building of space instrumentation, atmospheric contaminant sensors, magnetic mass spectrometers, mass analyzers; and development of new concepts of magnet design and the invention of a new type of x-ray spectrometer.

For his work on missiles, he has received a number of patents.

Janet Emerson Bashen (1957-Present), was born on February 12, 1957, in Mansfield, Ohio to James L. Emerson Sr. and Ola Emerson. Soon after her birth, the family relocated to Huntsville, Alabama where Bashen spent her childhood. Both of Bashen’s parents worked two jobs to support the family and the responsibility to care for two younger siblings fell to Bashen. During Bashen’s seminar call, Business Ownership Ain’t for the Weak-Hearted: Tales of a Sista, she stated:

As a black girl growing up in the segregated South, I asked my parents many questions; they didn’t have answers. This started a life-long quest of trying to understand our country’s history and struggle with issues of race. This research led me to gender issues and then my passion with EEO grew into a business interest that has evolved, incorporating diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Bashen is an American inventor, entrepreneur, and business consultant. Bashen is the first African-American woman to receive a patent for a web-based equal employment opportunity (EEO) software invention and was inducted into the Black Inventors Hall of Fame in 2007. Bashen is the founder and President of Bashen Corporation, a human resources consulting firm with a market niche in EEO compliance. In May 2000, Bashen testified before Congress regarding the effects of the Federal Trade commission opinion letter on their-party discrimination investigations. With Congressional help from Texas Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, The Society for Human Resource Management and The Chamber of Commerce, Bashen played as a key role in changing the legislation.

In 1967, Bashen’s mother made a decision to send her daughter, along with five other black students, to Fifth Avenue Elementary, a newly integrated school. That decision would ultimately become the catalyst that inspired Bashen’s interest toward issues regarding race. Bashen soon learned that integration did not mean acceptance. Although Bashen and the other black students were placed in the same classrooms with the white students, they were still separated by race in the classrooms. Overcoming the adversity of growing up in government housing until junior high, Bashen was a good student. After high school graduation, Bashen decided to apply to Alabama A&M University, a historically black college and university (HBCU). Alabama A&M University proved to be an eye-opening experience for Bashen.

Bashen’s educational background includes a degree in legal studies and government from the University of Houston and postgraduate studies at Rice University’s Jess H. Hones Graduate School of Administration. Ms. BAshen is also a graduate of Harvard University’s Women and Power: Leadership in a New World.

Started in 1994, Bashen built the business from her home office with no money, one client and a fervent commitment to succeed. As an African-American businesswoman competing with legions of capitalized law firms, Bashen had to establish immediate credibility with prospective clients. These entities had to be persuaded that Bashen Corporation’s services would forever transform the way equal employment opportunity and fair employment practices concerns were investigated. With over 25 years of consulting experience, Bashen is considered an industry expert in fair employment practices, which include: discrimination investigations, EEO compliance, affirmative action, training, and diversity inclusion strategies. Ms. Bashen’s vision created a cottage industry for HR/Diversity/EEO insourcing.

In January 2006, Bashen was awarded a patent for her software invention and became the first African-American woman to receive a patent for aweb-based EEO software invention, LinkLine. LinkLine, is a web-based application for EEO claims intake and tracking, claims management, document management and numerous reports. Bashen will soon release AAPLink, a web-based software for building affirmative action plans.

Patricia Era Bath (1942-Present), is an ophthalmologist and inventor who is credited as the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose. She was born in New York City on November 4, 1942. Bath was the daughter of Rupert and Gladys Bath. Her father, and immigrant from Trinidad, was a newspaper columnist, a merchant seaman and the first black man to work for the New York City Subway was motorman. Raised in Harlem, Bath was encouraged academically by her parents.

Inspired by Albert Schweizer, Bath applied for and won a National Science Foundation Scholarship while attending Charles Evans Hughes High School; this led her to a research project at Yeshiva University and Harlem Hospital Center on cancer that piques her interest in medicine. In 1960, still a teenager, Bath won the Merit Award of Mademoiselle Magazine for her contribution to the project.

Bath graduated with a baccalaureate degree of Arts in chemistry from Hunter College in 1964, then from Howard University School of Medicine in 1968. She was the first female ophthalmologist at UCLA’s prestigious Jules Stein Eye Institute and the first female African-American surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center.

Bath has broken ground for women and African-Americans in a number of areas. Prior to Bath, no woman had ever served on the staff of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, headed the post graduate training program ophthalmology or been elected to the honorary staff of the UCLA Medal Center (an honor bestowed on her after her retirement). Before Bath, no black person had served as a resident in ophthalmology at New York University and no black woman had ever served on staff as a surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center. Bath is the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose. Her Laserphaco Probe is used around the world to treat cataracts. The holder of four patents, she is also the founder of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in Washington, D.C.

She relocated to Washington, D.C. to attend Howard University College of Medicine, from which she received her doctoral degree in 1968. During her time at Howard, she was president of the Student National Medical Association and received fellowships from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Mental Health.

Bath interned at Harlem Hospital Center, subsequently serving as a fellow at Columbia University. During this period, from 1968 to 1970, Bath became aware that the practice of eye care was uneven among racial minorities and poor population, with much higher incidence of blindness amongst her black and poor patients. She determined that, as a physician, she would help address this issue. She persuaded her professors from Columbia to operate on blind patients at Harlem Hospital Center, which had not previously offered surgery, at no cost. Bath pioneered the worldwide discipline of community ophthalmology, a volunteer-based outreach to bring necessary eye care to underserved populations.

After completing her education, Bath served briefly as an assistant professor at Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science before becoming the first woman on faculty at the Eye Institute. In 1978, Bath co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, for which she served as president.

In 1981, she conceived of the Laserphaco Probe, a medical device for ablating and removing cataract lenses. The device was completed in 1986 after Bath conducted research on lasers in Berlin and patented in 1988, making her the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for medical purpose.

Bath holds four patents in the United States. The device—which quickly and nearly painlessly dissolves the cataract with a laser, irrigates and cleans the eye and permits the easy insertion of a new lens—is used internationally to treat the disease. Bath has continued to improve the device and has successfully restored vision to people who have been unable to see for decades.

In 1983, she became the head of residency in her field at Charles R. Drew University, the first woman ever to head such a department. Bath received the patent in 1988 for an Apparatus for ablating and removing cataract lenses, a version of a device designed to help remove cataracts with a fiber-optic laser.

In 1993, she retired from UCLA, which subsequently elected her the first woman on its honorary staff.

She served as professor of Ophthalmology at Howard University’s School of Medicine and as a professor of Telemedicine and Ophthalmology at St. Georges University. She was among the co-founders of the King-Drew Medical Center ophthalmology training program.

As director of AIPM, Bath has traveled widely, performing surgery, teaching new medical techniques, and donating equipment in many industrialized and developing countries.

In 1993, Bath retired from UCLA Medical Center and was appointed to the honorary medical staff. Since then, she has been an advocate of telemedicine the user of electronic communications to provide medical services to remote areas where health care is limited. She has held positions in telemedicine at Howard University and St. George’s University in Grenada.

Three of Bath’s four patents relate to the Laserphasco Probe. In 2000, she was granted a patent for a method she devised for using ultrasound technology to treat cataracts.

Bath has been honored by two of her universities. Hunter College placed her in its Hall of Fame in 1988 and Howard University declared her a Howard University Pioneer in Academic Medicine in 1993.

Andrew Jackson Beard (1849-1921), was an African-American inventor, who is credited with inventing the Jenny Coupler hooking device, which was designed and now commonly used to connect two or more passenger and/or freight train cars together when they are bumped into one another. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio for his work on railroad coupler design. This device is still used today by commercial and commuter train systems that provide services throughout the United States.

Born in Alabama in 1849, Andrew Beard spent the first fifteen years of his life as a slave on a small farm in Alabama. A year after he was emancipated, he married and became a farmer in a small city outside of Birmingham. While in Birmingham, he was able to develop and champion his first invention, a plow. Three years later, he patented a second plow. These two inventions earned him almost $10,000, with which he began to invest in real estate.

Following his stint in real estate, Andrew Beard began to work with and study engines. In 1892, he filed a patent for an improvement to the rotary steam engine.

Andrew Beard is sometimes falsely cited as the inventor of the automatic railroad coupler, also known as the knuckle coupler, but this was invested by Eli H. Janney, a former Confederate Major who was awarded a patent for his revolutionary invention in 1873, U.S. Patent 138,405. Beard’s patent relating to the automatic coupler was one of some 8,000 variant patents awarded between Janney’s invention in 1873 and the turn of the 20th century.

Little is known about the period of time from Beard’s last patent application in 1897 up until his death. He died in 1921.

Henry Blair (1807-1860) was the second African-American inventor ever to receive a patent for developing a new dry cleaning process for clothing. He was born in Montgomery County, Maryland, U. S. A. in 1807. Little is known about his personal life. However, he was not a free man, but is known for sneaking into his work space to continue his work. For a long time Blair was thought to be the first African-American to receive a patent, and is still confused today as being the first. It was later found out that actually Thomas Jennings received a patent for his invention of the dry cleaning process in 1821.

Blair received his first patent on October 14, 1834 for his invention of the corn seed planter. It allowed the farmers to plant their corn much faster, and with much less labor. The machine also helped with weed control. He later received another patent in 1836 for the invention of the cotton planter. The cotton planter was very similar to the seed planter in the way that it was put together.

Blair was not an educated man; he could not read or write. At the time that he filed his patent applications he had to sign them with an x because he was unable to write his name. Another interesting not about Blair is that he is the only person in the United States Patent Office records to be identified as a colored man. No other inventor is identified by their race. Henry Blair died in 1890.

Otis Boykin (1920-1982) was an inventor, who is credited with inventing the electronic control device used in guided missiles, IBM computers, and the control unit for a pacemaker. He was born on August 29, 1920, in Dallas, Texas to his mother a homemaker, and father, a carpenter. After graduating from high school, he attended Fisk College in Nashville, Tennessee and the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, but was compelled to drop out after 2 years because his parents could not afford to continue his tuition.

In the same year of his graduation, he took a job as a lab assistant with the Majestic Radio and TV Corporation in Chicago, Illinois. He rose in the ranks, ultimately serving as a supervisor. He eventually took a position with the P. J. Nielsen Research Laboratories while trying to start his own business, Boykin-Fruth Incorporated. At the same time, he decided to continue his education, pursuing graduate studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois. He was forced to drop out in 1947, after only two years of education, because he was unable to afford tuition.

Boykin, who took a special interest in working with resisters, began researching and inventing on his own. He sought and received a patent for a wire precision resistor on June 16, 1959. This resistor would later be used in radios and televisions. Two years later, he created a breakthrough device that could withstand extreme changes in temperature and pressure. The device, which was cheaper and more reliable than others on the market, came in great demand by the United States military and IBM.

In 1964, Boykin moved to Paris, creating electronic innovations for a new market of customers. His most famous invention was a control unit for the pacemaker. Ironically, Boykin died in Chicago in 1982 as a result of heart failure. Upon his death, he had 26 patents to his name.

Boykin’s most famous invention was likely a control unit for the artificial heart pacemaker. The device essentially uses electrical impulses to maintain a regular heartbeat.

George Carruthers (1939-Present), is an inventor, physicist, and space scientist. He was born on October 1, 1939, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father was a civil engineer and his mother was a homemaker. The family lived in Milford, Ohio until Carruthers’ father died suddenly and his mother moved the family back to her native Chicago. As a child he enjoyed visiting Chicago museums, libraries and the planetarium. He was a member of the Chicago Rocket Society and various science clubs. In 1957, he earned his high school diploma from Englewood High School in Chicago, the same year the Russians launched the first Sputnik.

After high school, Carruthers attended the University of Illinois, earning his bachelor’s of science degree in aeronautical engineering in 1961. He also did his graduate work at the University of Illinois earning his masters degree in nuclear engineering in 1962 and his Ph.D. in aeronautical and astronomical engineering. While conducting his graduate studies, Carruthers worked as a research and teaching assistant studying plasma and gases.

In 1964, Carruthers began work for the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. where his work focused on far ultraviolet astronomy. In 1969, he received a patent for his invention, the Image Converter, which detected electromagnetic radiation in short wave lengths, and in 1970, he made the first observation of molecular hydrogen in space. In 1972, Carruthers invented the first moon-based observatory, the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph, which was used in the Apollo 16 mission. In the 1980s, Carruthers helped create a program called the Science & Engineers Apprentice Program, which allows high school students to spend a summer with scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory.

In 1986, one of Carruthers inventions captured an ultraviolet image Halley’s Comet. In 1991, he invented a camera that was used in the Space Shuttle Mission. During the summers of 1996 and 1997 he taught a course in Earth and Space Science for C.C. Public Schools Science teachers. This invention revealed new features of Earth’s far-outer atmosphere and deep-space objects from the perspective of the lunar surface. Carruthers was inducted into the Nation Inventor’s Hall of Fame in 2003. He also helped to develop a series of videotapes on Earth and Space science for high school students. Since 2002, Carruthers has been teaching a two-semester course in Earth and Space Science at Howard University, sponsored by a NASA Aerospace Workforce Development Grant.

Carruthers has been recipient of numerous awards for his work and inventions in science and space.

James Collier (1924-Present), is an engineer, inventor, and educator. He was born James Alexander Collier, Jr., on October 18, 1924, in Jackson, Tennessee to Lucille and James Collier, Sr. Collier’s grandmother ran a boarding house for Pullman Porters, and his maternal great grandmother lived to be 111 years old. A retired quality control engineer for Monsanto, Collier is the inventor of the process by which Monsanto sliced and coated silicon chips for electronic information storage. Growing up in Jackson, Tennessee, he attended South Jackson Elementary School in an integrated neighborhood. At segregated Merry High School in Jackson, Collier was an outstanding musician. He sang and played the violin and trombone. Before graduation in 1942, Collier and the members of the choir refused to entertain the white state school superintendent. They led the elaborate intro music play and stood mute.

Drafted into military service during World War II in 1943, Collier was discharged in 1946. He graduated from Jackson’s Lane College with his B.S. degree in social science and music in 1949. Collier also took graduate courses at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Collier started working for the St. Louis Board of Education in 1950 as a substitute teacher, then as a sixth grade teacher. Also working after hours as a musician and band leader, he played trombone with his group, Jim Collier and the Rhythmaires and promoted acts like Chuck Berry, Eddie Kendall, Archie Burnside, Nancy Wilson, Otis Hightower, Art Blakely, Ernie Wilkins, Jimmy Forrest and Jimmy Smith.

In 1980, Collier invented and patented a silicon slicing process for today’s silicon chips. Monsanto Electronics established a plant to produce the chips in 1963, where collier experimented and developed the slicing process.

Collier is the founder of Operations Family and works with youth, mentoring and teaching them voice and stage presence. For many years, he produced his own cable television show. The broad range of subjects covered by Collier include the works of Tyler Perry, black land distribution after the Civil War, St. Louis culture and an award winning Black History Month program. Collier has also published a book of his poetry and is developing his talent as a painter.

Caresse Crosby (1892-1970), was a publisher, poet, and inventor who was born in New York City on April 20, 1892 with the name Mary Phelps (Polly) Jacob, which was changed later to Caresse Crosby after her second marriage to Harry Crosby. Nonetheless, her family and friends continued to call her Polly, a nick name she had acquired over the years. While Caresse Crosby had spent most of her career engaged in the literary arts, her added interests in fashion helped to change fashion design, freeing women from the confinements of corsets by getting the first patent for the modern brassiere—or as we call it now the bra.

Caresse Crosby came up with the idea for the bra in 1913 and later sold the patent for her invention. Two years later, she married Richard Rogers Peabody, and the couple had two children. The union didn’t last, however, and Crosby became embroiled in a scandal when she fell in love with another man while still married to Peabody. She subsequently divorced Peabody in 1921 and married Harry Crosby the next year.

Not long after their marriage and move to Paris, Caresse and Harry Crosby immersed themselves in the city’s social happenings and began to travel in literary circles. It was at this time when she changed her name to Caresse as part of her new literary persona and when she first hit the publishing scene with her first book, Crosses of Gold, which was published in 1925. Her next work, Graven Images, was released the following year. Besides her own writing, Crosby and her husband established two publishing imprints: Editions Narcisse and Black Sun Press. Through their company, the Crosbys published the likes of Kay Boyle, Hart Crane, James Joyce, and Archibald MacLeish. The great partnership between Crosby and her husband crumbled after he and his mistress committed suicide in 1929. After his death, Crosby continued on as an editor and publisher, putting out collections of her late husband’s work and letters as well as material by Ezra Pound and many others.

In the 1930s, Caresse Crosby returned to the United States. She married Selbert Young in 1037, but the relationship ended in divorce. Crosby shared stories from her fascinating life in her 1953 memoir Passionate Years. She later moved to Rome and established an informal artistic colony of sorts at her castle home, where she later died on January 24, 1970.

David Nelson Crosthwait, Jr. (1898-1976), was an African- American mechanical and electrical engineer, inventor and writer. He was born on May 27, 1898, in the city of Nashville, Tennessee. He grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. Once he completed high school he received a Bachelor of Science (1913) and a Masters of Engineering (1920) from Purdue University. An African-American pioneer in the field of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC), Crosthwait followed his area of major study at Purdue University where he studied mechanical engineering in 1913, and upon graduation he took a job with the C.A. Dunham Company (subsequently known as Dunham-Busch, Inc.).

Crosthwait’s expertise was on air ventilation, central air condi- tioning, and heat transfer systems. With this knowledge he created many different heating systems, refrigeration methods, temperature regulating devices, and vacuum pumps. For these inventions he holds thirty nine United States patents as well as eighty international patents. In the 1920s and 1930s Crosthwait invented a vacuum pump, a boiler and a thermostat control, all for more effective heating systems for larger buildings. Some of his greatest accomplishments were for creating the heating systems for the Rockefeller Center and New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

During his time with the company, Crosthwait held many positions, including director of research. While at Dunham, he conducted research in several areas, including heat transfer and steam transport. His work led to many innovations in HVAC devices and technology and the holder of many U.S. patents. Crosthwait designed HVAC systems, and the heating system at Radio City Music Hall in New York City is perhaps the best known example of his work.