Day 10 - Inez Beverly Prosser and Brown V.S The Board of Education

Dr. Inez Beverly Prosser

Dr. Inez Beverly Prosser 1897? - 1934

Who Was She?

Inez was born in Yoakum, TX in 1897. Her parents, Samuel and Veola had ten other children. He worked as an elevator operator, and Veola stayed home with the children...you couldn't pay me enough to stay home with eleven children. 

Samuel and Veola decided that education was one of the most important things they could give their children, but there were not many schools and certainly not many good ones for educating black children in Texas.

Samuel and Veola moved their family multiple times until they finally found a place they thought gave their children the best chance at getting a solid education.

They also started a college fund.

Having eleven children meant that they could only save enough money to send one of their children off to higher education. They picked their eldest son, Leon.

At the time, their second born child and daughter, Inez, was at the top of her class and longing for more learning.

Leon suggested that they spend the college money on his little sister.

After Inez graduated valedictorian from Yoakum Colored High school, she went off to  Prarie View Normal College - now Prarie View A&M University. She graduated Valedictorian Prarie View in 1912.

What Did She Do?

Inez Prosser returned to Texas with a teaching degree and taught in the segregated schools there. She moved from elementary to high school and worked with children of all ages across the state. Through it all, she taught English, and coached sports teams.

Inez pursued as much outside education as she could and saved money to help her siblings achieve their educational dreams. 

All ten of her siblings graduated from high school, and she helped put six of them through college.

Inez believed that education was the key to opening up people's lives, and she never stopped pursuing her own dreams no matter how difficult. 

The biggest obstacle Inez faced was the state of Texas. Because of the segregated schools, she was unable to attend a program that offered masters degrees. She had to leave the state for that.

She earned a masters degree in educational psychology from the University of Colorado.

In 1927, after attaining her degree, Prosser returned to Texas and took a job at Tillotson College.

Inez was at Tillotson for three years where she worked hard to improve the psychological and education conditions for the students at her college. After three years, she was transferred to Tougaloo College in Mississippi in 1930.

In 1931, Prosser entered the University of Cincinnati and earned a Ph.D. in Psychology in 1933. 

She is the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in psychology in America.

Within a year of achieving her Ph.D., Inez Prosser was killed in an automobile accident in Mississippi. She is listed as being 38, but nobody is really certain what year she was born.

Inez Prosser's Legacy

Prosser's dissertation was one of the most important documents that had ever been produced about the deleterious psychological and educational effects racism had on African American children.

It was called Non-academic Development of Negro Children in Mixed and Segregated Schools.

In her lifetime, she advocated for segregated schools because integrated schools caused African American children extreme stress. They were offered violence, and abuse and nobody in their educational environment was concerned about whether or not they were emotionally or physically safe.

She also wrote that some black students would excel in integrated schools.

She also pointed out that segregated schools did not offer the level of educational excellence needed in order to really improve the lives of all African American students, and that these schools marred by the racist policies of the educational system had harmful psychological effects on African American students.

She also wrote that some black students would be better in segregated schools.

She looked at this question from many different sides.

In her lifetime, and beyond, people used her work selectively to argue for and against integration.

In 1954, Brown V the Board of Education came before the Supreme Court.

Inez Beverly Prosser's work was presented as a critical part of the argument that integrating schools and offering supports for African American students was important to provide all American children access to good education.

Her work on how societal stressors affect the education of children is still being used to this day.

Thank you, Inez Beverly Prosser, for helping us see how racism and poverty change the way our brains work.

We still have so much to learn.

Celebrate Black History Month!

Day 1 - The ABC's of Black History Month

Day 2 - Archie Alphonso Alexander - Mathematician/Engineer

Day 3 - Sarah Boone - Inventor and Domestic Goddess
Day 4 - Charles R. Drew - Blood Man
Day 5 - Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner - Inventor of The Sanitary Pad

Day 6 - Ernest Everett Just - Biologist, Zoologist, Cell man
Day 7 - Frederick McKinley Jones - The Coolest Man in Modern History

Day 8 - Sarah Goode - A Practical Bed For Small Spaces
Day 9 - William Henry Cling - Did He Invent The Hospital Bed Before Gatch?
Day 10 - Inez Beverly Prosser and Brown V.S. The Board of Education
Day 11 - Jan Ernst Mateliger - Mechanical Engineer/Sole Man
Day 12 - Samuel L. Kountz Jr. - Revolutionized Transplant Surgery
Day 13 - Lewis Howard Latimer - Incandescent Inventor
Day 14 - Marie Van Brittan Brown - Home Security
Day 15 - Norbert Rillieux - Sugar Man
Day 16 - Otis Boykin - He Kept Hearts Beating
Day 17 - Alice H. Parker - Heating It Up!
Day 18 - Lloyd Quarterman - Chemist and Atom Man
Day 19 - Robert F. Flemming Jr. - Guitar Man
Day 20 - Charles S. L. Baker - The Friction Radiator 
Day 21 - Granville T. Woods - The Black Edison
Day 22 - Alfred L. Cralle - Next Time You Have Ice Cream...
Day 23 - Ellen Elgin - Through The Wringer
Day 24 - Dr. Daniel Hale Williams - Holding A Heart In the Palm of His Hands
Day 25 - Benjamin Bradley - Steam Engine Dominance
Day 26 - Elijah McCoy - The Real One
Day 27 - Alexander Miles - Hold The Door, Please!

Day- 9 William Henry Cling - Did He Invent the Hospital Bed Before Gatch?

William Henry Cling - 1866 - 1937

Now, before I start this, I want to be clear about something...I did not come here to throw shade.

I came to talk about a barber.

William Henry Cling was born in Charleston, SC right after the Civil War ended. He worked as a barber up until his death of a stroke in 1937.

The thing about this barber is he was also an inventor. 

I could find nothing about whether he was the sort of fellow who got home and spent all of his evenings tinkering but he seems to have been one of those self-taught mechanical engineers.

What Did He Invent?

Cling invented a couple of things that one might expect of a barber.

Clings Shoe String

He invented a shoelace that had wire in it so you didn't have to make a bow to keep the shoe in place.

Our barber also patented improvements to something called a Coat Lapel and Collar Regulator. This is a little gizmo that goes into the lining of men's coats that makes the lapel and collar fall properly on the body.

I kind of expected that sort of thing from a man who spent his life styling gentlemen. His other extracurricular activities, however, roamed far afield.

A Mechanical Man

William Henry Cling patented improvements to railroad safety. His device helped prevent head on and rear end collisions for trains traveling on the same track. 

I found some breadcrumbs that suggest this device was actually created and used on the railroads. It has an international patent at this point. 

Now, ask me if I can find any information about Cling being cited for having invented it or anybody actually using it in any literature that pertains to the railroads.

Answer: I can't. 

Possibly I don't know how to search for this information. Possibly it is in obscure books about little-known inventors who contributed something to locomotive travel? Possibly nobody cared about this and it was never used? Possibly it didn't work?

If anybody out there knows, I would be happy to learn more about this.

He also patented a mechanical device that could be used to keep track of the number of people entering or leaving a place like a fair or an amusement event. It was handheld,  you clicked it and it kept a record of whatever you were counting. Did somebody pick up this patent considering the number of mechanical tally keepers we have today?

Answer: I have no idea. 

The Gatch Bed

Then, there was the big one. 

William Henry Cling designed and began the process of patenting an adjustable bed in 1908. This was to help bedridden people. His idea was that they wouldn't be stuck lying prone all of the time. They could not only sit up, but their legs could also be adjusted.  

There was an adjustable bed on the market in 1874, but only the top half could be adjusted. Cling designed and patented a bed that could be raised or lowered at both ends.  His patent was awarded in 1909.

The Gatch Bed

Turns out that in 1909, the same year Cling's patent was awarded, Willis Drew Gatch, a doctor of great renown, developed what looks like the same thing. Today, we call it The Gatch Bed.

Now, I am not saying that this doctor who did pioneering work in the field of Anesthesiology might not have designed this bed.

source

I do note that Gatch didn't design anything else mechanical, and there is nothing I could find that says anything other than he designed it.

All I'm trying to say is that if you look at the design of Cling's bed, and you look at the Gatch Bed, they look suspiciously similar.

I am certain there is a perfectly good explanation about how Drew ended up designing a bed like Cling's in the same year it appeared in the patent office. 

Convergent Inventing? It isn't like that hasn't happened before.

Anyway, I give you William Henry Cling.

An African American barber who invented some really cool stuff and doesn't seem to have been given credit for any of it.

Celebrate Black History Month!

Day 1 - The ABC's of Black History Month

Day 2 - Archie Alphonso Alexander - Mathematician/Engineer

Day 3 - Sarah Boone - Inventor and Domestic Goddess
Day 4 - Charles R. Drew - Blood Man
Day 5 - Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner - Inventor of The Sanitary Pad

Day 6 - Ernest Everett Just - Biologist, Zoologist, Cell man
Day 7 - Frederick McKinley Jones - The Coolest Man in Modern History

Day 8 - Sarah Goode - A Practical Bed For Small Spaces
Day 9 - William Henry Cling - Did He Invent The Hospital Bed Before Gatch?
Day 10 - Inez Beverly Prosser and Brown V.S. The Board of Education
Day 11 - Jan Ernst Mateliger - Mechanical Engineer/Sole Man
Day 12 - Samuel L. Kountz Jr. - Revolutionized Transplant Surgery
Day 13 - Lewis Howard Latimer - Incandescent Inventor
Day 14 - Marie Van Brittan Brown - Home Security
Day 15 - Norbert Rillieux - Sugar Man
Day 16 - Otis Boykin - He Kept Hearts Beating
Day 17 - Alice H. Parker - Heating It Up!
Day 18 - Lloyd Quarterman - Chemist and Atom Man
Day 19 - Robert F. Flemming Jr. - Guitar Man
Day 20 - Charles S. L. Baker - The Friction Radiator 
Day 21 - Granville T. Woods - The Black Edison
Day 22 - Alfred L. Cralle - Next Time You Have Ice Cream...
Day 23 - Ellen Elgin - Through The Wringer
Day 24 - Dr. Daniel Hale Williams - Holding A Heart In the Palm of His Hands
Day 25 - Benjamin Bradley - Steam Engine Dominance
Day 26 - Elijah McCoy - The Real One
Day 27 - Alexander Miles - Hold The Door, Please!

Day 8 - Sarah Goode - A Practical Bed For Small Spaces

source

Sarah Elisabeth Jacobs Goode - 1855 - 1905

What We Know For Sure

Sarah was born in 1855 in Toledo, Ohio.

After the Civil War ended, her parents moved her and her six siblings to Chicago, Il.

There, she met and married a fellow named Archibald Goode who was a carpenter.

Sarah opened her own furniture store in Chicago.

One of the major complaints her clientele had about their apartments was that they were very small, and there was barely any room for furniture.

Sarah put her mind to figuring out how to optimize the space at hand and offer a piece of useful furniture.

Her creation? A cabinet bed.

source

A desk that was fully functional with drawers and space to work that had a bed hidden in it.

You could do everything you wanted from storing paperclips to using the top of the desk to eat or do your taxes, and when you were ready for bed, you could open it and a full sized bed would unfold. There was a separate piece you could use to reinforce the middle of the bed.

source

 In the morning, you put the bed away and go on with the day.

Sarah patented the cabinet bed in 1885.

Sarah Goode died in 1905.

Things That Might Or Might Not Be True

The above facts seem to be mostly born out by all of the various sites I looked at and read. Now, there were lots of other things I found that seem either made up or fanciful, and possibly embellished.

This site says definitively that Sarah Goode was born into slavery.
Considering the fact she could read and write, that is highly suspect.


I found out there was a potential other African American woman who'd gotten a patent the year before Sarah. Her name was Judy Reed. Nobody knows anything at all about Judy Reed other than she got a patent in 1884. She signed her name "X".

I am not certain why anybody thinks Judy Reed was black.


Whilst searching for some kind of visuals for this post, I found a very "not an African American woman" picture listed with Sarah Goode's accomplishments on multiple sites.

I tracked the picture down and it turns out it is from a site for a family who was chronicling their  history in Wyoming The woman's name just happened to be Sarah Goode, but there is no reason to believe she invented anything, and she is most certainly not the first or possibly the second African American woman to ever patent anything.

I was amused that so many people had reprinted the picture without questioning it.

In Conclusion

All of that said, I give you Sarah Goode. She created the first cabinet bed that could double as a piece of functional furniture.

Sarah's creation was the precursor of the Murphy Bed, the sofa bed, and all the hideaway beds we have today.

Thank you, Sarah!

Celebrate Black History!

Day 1 - The ABC's of Black History Month

Day 2 - Archie Alphonso Alexander - Mathematician/Engineer

Day 3 - Sarah Boone - Inventor and Domestic Goddess
Day 4 - Charles R. Drew - Blood Man
Day 5 - Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner - Inventor of The Sanitary Pad

Day 6 - Ernest Everett Just - Biologist, Zoologist, Cell man
Day 7 - Frederick McKinley Jones - The Coolest Man in Modern History

Day 8 - Sarah Goode - A Practical Bed For Small Spaces
Day 9 - William Henry Cling - Did He Invent The Hospital Bed Before Gatch?
Day 10 - Inez Beverly Prosser and Brown V.S. The Board of Education
Day 11 - Jan Ernst Mateliger - Mechanical Engineer/Sole Man
Day 12 - Samuel L. Kountz Jr. - Revolutionized Transplant Surgery
Day 13 - Lewis Howard Latimer - Incandescent Inventor
Day 14 - Marie Van Brittan Brown - Home Security
Day 15 - Norbert Rillieux - Sugar Man
Day 16 - Otis Boykin - He Kept Hearts Beating
Day 17 - Alice H. Parker - Heating It Up!
Day 18 - Lloyd Quarterman - Chemist and Atom Man
Day 19 - Robert F. Flemming Jr. - Guitar Man
Day 20 - Charles S. L. Baker - The Friction Radiator 
Day 21 - Granville T. Woods - The Black Edison
Day 22 - Alfred L. Cralle - Next Time You Have Ice Cream...
Day 23 - Ellen Elgin - Through The Wringer
Day 24 - Dr. Daniel Hale Williams - Holding A Heart In the Palm of His Hands
Day 25 - Benjamin Bradley - Steam Engine Dominance
Day 26 - Elijah McCoy - The Real One
Day 27 - Alexander Miles - Hold The Door, Please!

Day - 7 Frederick McKinley Jones - The Coolest Man In Modern History

Frederick McKinley Jones

Frederick McKinley Jones - 1893 - 1961

A Rough Road

Right out of the shoot there is some disagreement about where Frederick was born. Most sources say it was Cincinnati, Ohio, but I found another that suggested it might have been Covington, KY.

Either way, he was orphaned at a very young age. His mother abandoned him, and by the age of seven, his father could not care for him and sent him to live with a Catholic priest in Kentucky. His father died a couple of years after that.

Frederick left school after the sixth grade and went back to Cincinnati. He made a living cleaning. At age fourteen he started working for an automobile repair shop.

A Self-Taught Mechanical Engineer

Frederick never went back to school. Everything he ever learned about engineering, mechanics, and machines he either came up with himself, learned from watching others around him, or by reading voraciously.

A big shout out to the importance of having access to public libraries.

Jones let the winds of life blow him where they would as he sought to build a life for himself despite the difficulties in advancing in a job as an African American.

In 1912, Jones moved to Hallock, MN to work on a 50,000-acre farm as a mechanic. He served in WW I and returned to Minnesota when the war ended. He took another job as a mechanic.

That's when life got interesting.

He taught himself about electronics and built a transmitter for the town's new radio station.

Jones then built a device to combine sound with moving pictures. This invention attracted the attention of a fellow named Joseph A. Numero, who hired Jones to improve the sound equipment he sold at his company Cinema Supplies Inc.

Source

Then, in 1938, Jones did something that changed how the entire world works. He designed and patented a portable cooling unit for trucks.

Keeping It Cool

Before 1938, the only way people could transport perishable things from place to place was to pack as much ice in as possible, move as fast as possible, and pray. Long distance shipping was out of the question. 

The inspiration for this invention has several different versions of the same story. It may be an urban legend or it might be true.

Either Jones was speaking directly to a farmer who'd lost a shipment of chickens because the ice melted before he could get his meat to market, or it was a rich farmer talking about all the times he'd lost produce, or it was a farmer over a drink or a farmer on a golf course, or it was Numero's friends and Jones wasn't there at all...take your pick.

In any case, after hearing this story, Jones got the idea to try and create a truck that could keep things cold.

Jones portable colling unit upended how everything - and I am not being hyperbolic - everything that must remain cold could move from one place to another.

The US Thermo Control Company

In 1940, Joseph Numero sold his company with the improved sound equipment Jones had engineered to RCA. With that money, Numero and Jones formed a partnership and opened a company called The US Thermo Control Company.

You might recognize it by its current name: Thermo King.

Source

There is no way to stress how drastically Frederick McKinley Jones changed the world.

Jone's work had a huge impact on how we shipped and stored blood during WWII.  (Shout out to Charles Richard Drew)

It changed the way we shipped supplies and medicine during the war.

Today, portable refrigeration is a critical part of the world's infrastructure. 

Lauded and Acclaimed

Frederick McKinley Jones was widely recognized and acclaimed during his lifetime, and he actually saw a financial gain from his inventions during his lifetime.

Over the course of his long life of inventing, Jones was awarded 61 patents in the areas of refrigeration, portable x-ray machines, sound equipment, and gasoline engines.

In 1944 - Jones was the first African American to be elected into The American Society for Refrigeration Engineers. (I had no idea that was a thing)

In the 1950's he consulted with the Department of Defense and Bureau of Standards.

In 1961, he died of lung cancer.

In 1977 he was elected into the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame.

source

He was posthumously awarded the National Medal of Technology in 1991 - The first African American to ever receive that award.

So, the next time you buy some delicious but perishable seasonal fruit from halfway around the world, dine on a delicious piece of Kobe beef in America,  have to take medicine that says, "Keep Refrigerated" on the back of the bottle, or pass a refrigerated truck of any kind on the highway, say a thank you to Frederick McKinley Jones.

-Celebrate Black History Month

Day 1 - The ABC's of Black History Month

Day 2 - Archie Alphonso Alexander - Mathematician/Engineer

Day 3 - Sarah Boone - Inventor and Domestic Goddess
Day 4 - Charles R. Drew - Blood Man
Day 5 - Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner - Inventor of The Sanitary Pad

Day 6 - Ernest Everett Just - Biologist, Zoologist, Cell man
Day 7 - Frederick McKinley Jones - The Coolest Man in Modern History

Day 8 - Sarah Goode - A Practical Bed For Small Spaces
Day 9 - William Henry Cling - Did He Invent The Hospital Bed Before Gatch?
Day 10 - Inez Beverly Prosser and Brown V.S. The Board of Education
Day 11 - Jan Ernst Mateliger - Mechanical Engineer/Sole Man
Day 12 - Samuel L. Kountz Jr. - Revolutionized Transplant Surgery
Day 13 - Lewis Howard Latimer - Incandescent Inventor
Day 14 - Marie Van Brittan Brown - Home Security
Day 15 - Norbert Rillieux - Sugar Man
Day 16 - Otis Boykin - He Kept Hearts Beating
Day 17 - Alice H. Parker - Heating It Up!
Day 18 - Lloyd Quarterman - Chemist and Atom Man
Day 19 - Robert F. Flemming Jr. - Guitar Man
Day 20 - Charles S. L. Baker - The Friction Radiator 
Day 21 - Granville T. Woods - The Black Edison
Day 22 - Alfred L. Cralle - Next Time You Have Ice Cream...
Day 23 - Ellen Elgin - Through The Wringer
Day 24 - Dr. Daniel Hale Williams - Holding A Heart In the Palm of His Hands
Day 25 - Benjamin Bradley - Steam Engine Dominance
Day 26 - Elijah McCoy - The Real One
Day 27 - Alexander Miles - Hold The Door, Please!

Day 6 - Ernest Everett Just - Biologist, Zoologist, Cell Man

Source

Born 1883 - Died 1941

A Difficult Start


Ernest E. Just was born in South Carolina. His early life was fraught with difficulties.

When he was four years old, both his father and grandfather died, leaving his mother to raise him and his two siblings alone.

His mother, Mary Matthews Just, took a job teaching at the negro school in the area and spent the summer in the phosphate mines of South Carolina.

While working, she noticed that there was lots of empty land near the mines, and encouraged African Americans to set up homes there. It is believed that the town founded on the land is named for her - Maryville, SC

Kimball Union Academy

Education

Ernest was very bright, and his mother sent him to The Colored Normal Industrial Agricultural and Mechanical College of South Carolina. He did well there, but both Mary and Ernest thought that the education for black people in the south was inferior to what he could get in the north.

When he was sixteen, his mother shipped him to New Hampshire where he attended Kimball Union Academy.


He returned home for a visit after his second year to discover his mother had been buried one hour earlier. He returned to New Hampshire and threw himself into his studies, determined to make sure the trust his mother placed in him was not wasted.

He graduated from Kimball in three years instead of four in 1903 and was at the top of the class.

Just got his undergrad degree at Dartmouth College. He was magna cum laude, and he was even considered to give the commencement speech, but the faculty decided it would be a bit too uncomfortable for the parents and guests to find out that the only black student in the graduating class had won almost every single award and honor the college offered.

A Black Scientist In America

Ernest had the same problem every other black scientist had in the early 1900s. No matter how brilliant or capable, most universities had white faculties and white students, and they were not about to hire a black instructor.

He joined the faculty of Howard University.  Howard did not have sufficient labs or equipment to do the types of research Just wanted to undertake.

Shortly after joining Howard, Just met Frank R. Lillie who was in charge of the Zoology department at the University of Chicago and a director of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA.

Lillie invited Just to spend the summer at the lab in MA. Ernest took him up on it. In fact, he spent the next twenty summers - with one exception apparently - at the MBL.

In 1916, Just achieved a doctorate from the University of Chicago. By that time, he was already becoming famous for his published papers about cells and how their surfaces reacted with each other. He also wrote about the cell's place in evolution, egg fertilization, and how embryos formed.

He was considered a genius in the design of experiments...but no other university in America would hire him.

A Black Scientist In Europe

His work with cells was both brilliant and completely ignored for years in America. Europe was a different matter.

In 1929, he conducted experiments at Anton Dohrn in Naples, Italy.

In 1930 he became the first American to ever be invited to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute.

Between 1929 and 1938, Just visited Europe ten times.

European scientists treated Just like a colleague, and the times he did run into racism abroad, it was usually from Americans traveling in Europe.

Contributions

Ernest Just wrote books, numerous papers, and articles about his observations and experiments on cells. His work is still considered brilliant, and it is the backbone of our modern understanding of cells.

source

Breeding Habits of the Heteroneteis Form of Nereis Limbata at Woods Hole/Mass by Frank R. Lillie and E. E. Just

"This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it."

The Biology of the Cell Surface by Ernest Everet Just

Death

When World War II broke out, Just was at the Station Biologique de Roscoff. The French Government told all of the foreigners to leave but Just stayed to complete his research.

In 1940 the Nazis invaded and Just was put in a POW camp. In 1941 the American government negotiated for his release. He'd fallen ill during his imprisonment, and when he returned home he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died shortly thereafter.


Ernest Everett Just pioneered work on cells in his day, and his work is still informing modern day scientists.

There is lots more to learn about Ernest Everett Just.

In 1911 he co-founded the first black fraternity, Omega Psi Phi.
In 1996 the US postal system gave him his own stamp. 

There are lots of really long science words and terms and such that Just studied, but this is a thumbnail, not a dissertation.

Thank you, Ernest Just for all the knowledge you contributed to our modern understanding of cellular functions!


-Celebrate Black History Month!

Day 1 - The ABC's of Black History Month

Day 2 - Archie Alphonso Alexander - Mathematician/Engineer

Day 3 - Sarah Boone - Inventor and Domestic Goddess
Day 4 - Charles R. Drew - Blood Man
Day 5 - Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner - Inventor of The Sanitary Pad

Day 6 - Ernest Everett Just - Biologist, Zoologist, Cell man
Day 7 - Frederick McKinley Jones - The Coolest Man in Modern History

Day 8 - Sarah Goode - A Practical Bed For Small Spaces
Day 9 - William Henry Cling - Did He Invent The Hospital Bed Before Gatch?
Day 10 - Inez Beverly Prosser and Brown V.S. The Board of Education
Day 11 - Jan Ernst Mateliger - Mechanical Engineer/Sole Man
Day 12 - Samuel L. Kountz Jr. - Revolutionized Transplant Surgery
Day 13 - Lewis Howard Latimer - Incandescent Inventor
Day 14 - Marie Van Brittan Brown - Home Security
Day 15 - Norbert Rillieux - Sugar Man
Day 16 - Otis Boykin - He Kept Hearts Beating
Day 17 - Alice H. Parker - Heating It Up!
Day 18 - Lloyd Quarterman - Chemist and Atom Man
Day 19 - Robert F. Flemming Jr. - Guitar Man
Day 20 - Charles S. L. Baker - The Friction Radiator 
Day 21 - Granville T. Woods - The Black Edison
Day 22 - Alfred L. Cralle - Next Time You Have Ice Cream...
Day 23 - Ellen Elgin - Through The Wringer
Day 24 - Dr. Daniel Hale Williams - Holding A Heart In the Palm of His Hands
Day 25 - Benjamin Bradley - Steam Engine Dominance
Day 26 - Elijah McCoy - The Real One
Day 27 - Alexander Miles - Hold The Door, Please!

Day 5 - Mary Beatrice Davidson - Inventor of the Sanitary Pad

Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner 1912 - 2006

Who was she?

Born in Monroe County, NC in 1912

Mary Davidson was born to invent things.  Her first attempt was to make a self-oiling door so that when her mother went out the back door in the morning the squeaking wouldn't wake her.

She was six.




Mary credits her father for encouraging her to explore things. She was bright and did well in school, but had to drop out of Howard after less than a year for lack of funds.

She never got an advanced degree.

Mary holds five patents. That is more than any other African American woman in history.

What did she invent?

Mary invented a number of things that improved the lives of women and people who needed extra assistance.

Her most famous invention was a sanitary belt attached to a pocket that was moisture proof. 

She invented the belt first and patented the moisture proof pocket later.

The Sanitary belt and tissue holder.

There were not very many options for women who were menstruating back in the day. They used wads of cloth or rags, and it wasn't advisable to leave the house. There were tampons, but it was considered scandalous to use them. Mary's invention addressed the problem.

She added a cloth pouch with a moistureproof seal that attached to the belt. You put rags or cotton into the pouch. It was the pocket for padding and the moisture proof seal that made it revolutionary. Mary Beatrice Davidson had invented the first generation of what would eventually be called the sanitary pad or napkin.

It meant you could actually go out in public without fear of getting blood everywhere.

When she first patented it, a company sent a representative down to speak to her. when they found out she was black, they lost interest. It was 30 years before anyone picked up the patent and started manufacturing them.

Add caption

She also designed an improved bathroom tissue holder that allowed the dangling end of the tissue to be accessible at all times. 

When her sister Mildred - an inventor in her own right -  was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, Mary invented and patented a tray and carrier that attaches to a walker.

Mary also invented a back washer that attaches to the wall for people who would find it hard to wash their backs any other way.

Inventing Because It Was Fun

Mary did not make money off of any of her inventions, but she never lost the joy of making things. 

She owned her own florist business in Washington DC until her death in 2006.

Thank you, Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner for making "that time of the month" less burdensome for women.

Celebrate Black History!

Day 1 - The ABC's of Black History Month

Day 2 - Archie Alphonso Alexander - Mathematician/Engineer

Day 3 - Sarah Boone - Inventor and Domestic Goddess
Day 4 - Charles R. Drew - Blood Man
Day 5 - Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner - Inventor of The Sanitary Pad

Day 6 - Ernest Everett Just - Biologist, Zoologist, Cell man
Day 7 - Frederick McKinley Jones - The Coolest Man in Modern History

Day 8 - Sarah Goode - A Practical Bed For Small Spaces
Day 9 - William Henry Cling - Did He Invent The Hospital Bed Before Gatch?
Day 10 - Inez Beverly Prosser and Brown V.S. The Board of Education
Day 11 - Jan Ernst Mateliger - Mechanical Engineer/Sole Man
Day 12 - Samuel L. Kountz Jr. - Revolutionized Transplant Surgery
Day 13 - Lewis Howard Latimer - Incandescent Inventor
Day 14 - Marie Van Brittan Brown - Home Security
Day 15 - Norbert Rillieux - Sugar Man
Day 16 - Otis Boykin - He Kept Hearts Beating
Day 17 - Alice H. Parker - Heating It Up!
Day 18 - Lloyd Quarterman - Chemist and Atom Man
Day 19 - Robert F. Flemming Jr. - Guitar Man
Day 20 - Charles S. L. Baker - The Friction Radiator 
Day 21 - Granville T. Woods - The Black Edison
Day 22 - Alfred L. Cralle - Next Time You Have Ice Cream...
Day 23 - Ellen Elgin - Through The Wringer
Day 24 - Dr. Daniel Hale Williams - Holding A Heart In the Palm of His Hands
Day 25 - Benjamin Bradley - Steam Engine Dominance
Day 26 - Elijah McCoy - The Real One
Day 27 - Alexander Miles - Hold The Door, Please!