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Teacher’s Resource Guide

GreatBlackInnovators

Additional Teaching Resources from Knowledge Unlimited®.

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Books From Zino Press Children’s BooksBe A Friend: The Story of African American Music in Song, Words and Pictures by Leotha Stanley.

A Drawing in the Sand: A Story of African American Art by Jerry Butler.

Sweet Words So Brave: The Story of African American Literature by Barbara K. Curry and James Michael Brodie.

All books come with teacher’s guides.

VideosThe Era of Segregation: A Personal Perspective.

Pride and Prejudice: A History of Black Culture in America.

The Roots of African Civilization

“We Shall Overcome” — A History of the Civil Rights Movement.

All videos include teacher’s guides.

Poster SetsBlack Innovators. Set of ten posters.

Great Black Americans: Set 1. Set of ten posters.

Great Black Americans: Set 2. Set of ten posters.

Outstanding Contemporary African Americans. Set of five posters.

African American Artists. Set of eight posters.

Inspirational Quotations: Set 1. Set of five posters.

Inspirational Quotations: Set 2. Set of five posters.

Voices of Diversity. Set of ten posters.

The Underground Railroad map.

Copyright ©2001 by Knowledge Unlimited, Inc. Student activity sheets may be duplicated for classroom use.

TEACHER’S RESOURCE GUIDE

for

Great Black InnovatorsA video

from Knowledge Unlimited®, Inc.


INTRODUCTION

African Americans have contributed in thousands of ways to the development ofAmerican society. For years, many, if not most, of these contributions went unacknowl-edged. In recent decades, that has begun to change.

In the realm of politics, for example, young people now learn a good deal about FrederickDouglass, Harriet Tubman, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. In literature, they are beginning to know more about Langston Hughes, Richard Wright,James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison. In the world of sports, Jesse Owens, JackieRobinson, Wilma Rudolph, and Michael Jordan are among hundreds of names familiar to many Americans. And, of course, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, MarianAnderson, Muddy Waters, and countless others have made widely acknowledged and significant contributions to American music.

But how many Americans, young or old, have ever heard of Jan Matzeliger, Granv i l l eWoods, Madam C.J. Wa l k e r, Garrett Augustus Morgan, Ernest Everett Just, or Percy Julian?All of these African Americans were pioneers in the realms of science, technology, and business — those spheres of human effort that have been central to our industrialcivilization. Science and industry have played a vital role in enabling us to build a common American culture and society. And yet the contributions of all too many blacki n n ovators in these fields still remain invisible.

It is this omission that our video GREAT BLACK INNOVATORS seeks to address. Usingnarration, still images, and a number of dramatic recreations of actual events, the pro-gram tells the stories of some important African American innovators, including thosejust mentioned. Tying this narrative together is an extensive interview with JamesMichael Brodie, author of the book Created Equal: The Lives and Ideas of Black AmericanInnovators. This book brings vividly to life a long-ignored aspect of the AfricanAmerican struggle for dignity and equality. It proves that in the face of enormous odds,talented blacks in this country still could and did perform at the highest levels ofachievement in even the most difficult, lonely, and demanding vocations. We hope thestory of these black innovators will be inspiring and informative for you and your students.

1Copyright ©2001 by Knowledge Unlimited, Inc. Student activity sheets may be duplicated for classroom use.

Great Black Innovators

The Teacher’s Resource Guide

The guide consists of the following:

1. A brief introduction, stating goals and objectives.

2. A Readiness Activity to be completed before viewing the video.

3. Four follow-up lessons to be completed after viewing the video. A reproducible activitysheet accompanies each lesson.

4. The complete script of the video GREAT BLACK INNOVATORS.

5. A brief bibliography.

Learning Objectives

After viewing the video and completing the activities in this guide, students should:

1. Have a greater appreciation of what it takes for anyone to be creative and innovative in sci-ence, technology, and industry.

2. Know much more than they do now about the many African American innovators who havehelped improve life for all of us.

3. Understand the special obstacles that racial prejudice and discrimination have placed in theway of talented African Americans.

4. Appreciate how the stories of these innovators undermine racial stereotypes about AfricanAmericans.

5. Have a broader knowledge of American history and of how historical forces helped shape,and were shaped by, innovation in science and industry.

2 Copyright ©2001 by Knowledge Unlimited, Inc. Student activity sheets may be duplicated for classroom use.


A Readiness Activity(Do this activity before viewing the video.)

Objective: Students will be better able to learn from and appreciate the video becausethey’ll understand more about the key individuals mentioned in it.

Use the Readiness Activity Sheet (opposite page).

1. Split your class into four or five smaller groups.

2. Duplicate and hand out the Readiness Activity Sheet, which contains a list of individualsmentioned in the video.

3. Tell the class members that they will be viewing a video on a group of important Americaninnovators, and that the video will mention the individuals listed on the activity sheet.

4. Assign each group three of the names on the sheet. Give the groups about 10 minutes todiscuss their three names and agree on a one-sentence description for each. Ask one per-son in each group to record the group’s descriptions.

5. Have each group read its descriptions to the whole class. Discuss the individuals and thestudents’ familiarity or lack of familiarity with them. Identify the African Americans on thelist and explain that the video is about these relatively unknown but important innovators.



Readiness Activity Sheet

In a small group, discuss the names you have been assigned from the list below. Have one member ofyour group act as secretary and, in the space provided, record an agreed-upon description of whyeach person whose name you have been assigned was important.

Thomas Edison

Benjamin Banneker

Matthew Henson

Alexander Graham Bell

Jan Matzeliger

Granville Woods

Elijah McCoy

The Wright Brothers

Garrett Augustus Morgan

Ernest Everett Just

Jonas Salk

George Washington Carver

Admiral Robert Peary

Madam C.J. Walker

Percy Julian



LESSON 1

Learning More about Black Innovators

Objective: Students will actively extend their understanding of the basic themes in thevideo GREAT BLACK INNOVATORS through a guided reading-writing exercise.

Use Activity Sheet for Lesson 1 (opposite page).

1. Make available at least one copy of James Michael Brodie’s book Created Equal: The Livesand Ideas of Black American Innovators. Show students the book and point out that it dealswith a very large number of black innovators, only some of whom were featured in thevideo.

2. Have a brief discussion about some of the African Americans who were included in thevideo. In the discussion, focus on what these African Americans accomplished and whytheir stories might have been considered key ones to include in the video.

3. Reproduce copies of Activity Sheet for Lesson 1 and hand them out. Ask students to readthe instructions on the activity sheet carefully. Then answer any questions they have.

4. Give students the time and opportunity to read at least some portions of Created Equal andchoose two other innovators to write about.

5. Have students complete the assignment and ask some to present their conclusions to the class.



Activity Sheet For Lesson 1

Learning More about Black Innovators

The video GREAT BLACK INNOVATORS includes an interview with James Michael Brodie, author ofthe book Created Equal: The Lives and Ideas of Black American Innovators. All the black innovatorsmentioned in the video are also included in Mr. Brodie’s book, along with a great many others. ReadCreated Equal and choose two African American innovators whose contributions or stories seemespecially important to you and who were not included in the video. Once you have made your choices,complete the information and use it to put together a brief presentation.

Innovator #1

Name of innovator ___________________________________________________________

Innovator’s main contributions

Why this innovator’s story is important

Innovator #2

Name of innovator ___________________________________________________________

Innovator’s main contributions

Why this innovator’s story is important



LESSON 2

Interviewing a Local Innovator

Objective: Students will gain a greater understanding of the creative process and of therole of innovation in daily life. They will also gain some insight into the potential and theproblems associated with gathering data from interviews.



2. Give students several days to search the newspaper for stories about innovative individualsin the community.

3. Have students, either individually or in groups, contact these local innovators and arrangefor interviews. Tell them to conduct the interviews and take careful notes, especially on theresponses to the questions listed on the activity sheet.

4. Have students prepare brief reports on their interviews and use whatever materials they col-lect to create a bulletin board display called “Local Innovators Making Life Better for All of Us.”




Interviewing a Local Innovator

Look through your newspaper for stories about people in your community who have done unusual,creative, and innovative things. Arrange to meet and interview one of these people, using the ques-tions listed below and any other questions you come up with. Take careful notes. Use these notes toput together a brief written report on the innovator. If possible, also take or collect photos of thisinnovator and his or her work. Add your report and photos to your classmates’ and create a bulletinboard display called “Local Innovators Making Life Better for All of Us.”

Interview Questions

1. What is your name? Your occupation? Why are you considered to be an innovator?

2. What do you consider the most innovative accomplishments in your life so far?

3. What gave you the ability and drive to do these things?

4. What have been the hardest obstacles for you to overcome?

5. What skills and attitudes we re most important in helping you to ove rcome these obstacles?

6. What other individuals have been most important in helping you to become an innovatorin the community?

7. What advice would you give to a young person who wants to be creative and innovativein some field or activity?



LESSON 3

The Innovative Personality

Objective: Students will get practice in reading critically. They will also develop a deeperappreciation of the way in which personality and character affect a person’s ability to becreative and do well at any task.



2. Briefly discuss how the eight character traits on the activity sheet might apply to some of thefigures mentioned in the video. Ask students to think about how this mix of character traitsmight differ among innovators in the sciences, the arts, sports, politics, etc.

3. Give students enough time to research one African American innovator more thoroughly, usingsome of the resources listed in the bibliography at the end of this teacher’s resource guide.

4. Have students complete the activity sheets and use them in a group discussion about what ittakes to be a creative and innovative person.




The Innovative Personality

Imagination Courage Intelligence CompassionPatience Ambition Discipline Loyalty

Eight character traits are listed above. Which ones are most important in helping a person to becomea great innovator? Learn more about one of the African American innovators featured in the video GREAT BLACK INNOVATORS. The bibliography at the back of the teacher’s guide for the video pro-vides sources on these innovators. Your library staff may also be able to help you find information onthe person you choose. Once you have done some research, rank the eight character traits listed herein order of their importance to the innovator you have chosen. In the space provided below, explainyour ranking of these traits. As a group, share and discuss these rankings.

Name of innovator ______________________________________________________

The eight character traits in order of their importance to this innovator.

1. ________________________

2. ________________________

3. ________________________

4. ________________________

5. ________________________

6. ________________________

7. ________________________

8. ________________________

Explanation for your ranking of these character traits.

What other traits were important to this innovator’s success? List them here and explainwhy they were important.



LESSON 4

African American Innovators: Male and Female

Objective: Students will become more aware of the ways in which race and gender discrim-ination have affected the lives of talented African Americans.



2. Briefly discuss the ways in which racial prejudice and discrimination affected the variousblack innovators included in the video.

3. Also discuss Madam C.J. Walker’s story. Ask students to list the ways in which being awoman may have added to the obstacles she faced. Also ask if being a woman might havehelped her in certain ways.

4. Give students a chance to research Madam C.J. Walker and one of the four male AfricanAmerican innovators mentioned on the activity sheet.

5. Have students complete the activity sheet and use their answers as a guide in writing amore detailed report.




African American Innovators: Male and Female

James Michael Brodie’s book Created Equal: The Lives and Ideas of Black American Innovators mentionsmany black innovators, nearly all of whom are men. One woman mentioned in the book is MadamC.J. Walker. Learn more about Madam C. J. Walker. Also pick one of the following male AfricanAmerican innovators to learn more about: Granville Woods, George Washington Carver, MatthewHenson, Percy Julian. The teacher’s guide for the video GREAT BLACK INNOVATORS includes a bibli-ography with sources on all of these innovators. Or you can ask your librarian for help in locatingother information. After completing your research, use the space provided here to write brief answersto the four questions listed below. Then use these answers as the starting point for a more completewritten report comparing the lives of the two individuals you researched.

1. What male innovator did you research? What did he accomplish? How do hisaccomplishments compare to Madam Walker’s?

2. What special obstacles did Madam Walker face because she was a woman?

3. Was racism more or less of a problem for Madam Walker than for the male innovatoryou researched?

4. How did each individual overcome the obstacles he or she faced?


Script


NARRATORWe’ve always thought of ourselves as a nation of great inventors. In school, we learn about Edisonand his light bulb, Bell and his telephone, the Wright brothers and their first working airplane, HenryFord and his assembly line-produced cars.

But there are other things that we don’t generally learn about the people who invented so many of theobjects we use in everyday life. One is how hard a time the inventors had in convincing the right peopleof how significant their invention was. The head of the major telegraph company of the late 19th centurythought that Alexander Graham Bell was either a con man or a lunatic for trying to sell him a share ofhis invention that would later be called the telephone.

Another thing we don’t usually learn about is the enormous number of accomplishments, inventions,and technical breakthroughs created by a diverse group of Americans over a period of 200 years whohad two things in common. One is that they were all descendants of African peoples brought to thiscountry in chains. And the other, and perhaps related to the first, is that these inventors were generallyunrecognized in their lifetimes and remain relatively unknown today.

James Michael Brodie is a historian who got curious about these people; particularly about theiralmost total exclusion from most scholarly accounts of the history of American innovation. As aresponse to this upsetting discovery, he researched and wrote a book called Created Equal: The Livesand Ideas of Black American Innovators. He encountered a lot of frustration in the beginning of hisresearch.

JAMES MICHAEL BRODIE“When I first began my research, I went to the Library of Congress, and there was a book dated 1970s,somewhere in there, that listed the accomplishments of scientists and engineers, and people of greatcreativity, going as far back as you can imagine. I saw Jonas Salk, I saw Curie, I saw Einstein, youname it. They were all in there. The one person, actually the one group of people that were missingwere Africans. I didn’t see Daniel Hale Williams, who in the 1890s performed the first open heart opera-t i o n that succeeded. He’s not in that book. The twelve black scientists who were part of the researchteam on the Manhattan Project are not in that book. And I had a list of about 20 or 30 people, andnone of their names appeared. No one of African American descent appeared in this book.”

NARRATORThis is a very short version of the list of African American innovators that have been left out of our history.

With the exception of George Washington Carver, who developed hundreds of applications for by-productsof peanuts and sweet potatoes, the names on this list are often unrecognizable, and unrecognized.

James Michael Brodie has broken the silence of nonrecognition in his book Created Equal. And in thecourse of this program, he will help us shed light on the contributions and stories of these AfricanAmerican innovators.

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Matthew Henson: 1866-1955

NARRATORRear Admiral Robert E. Peary was the preeminent explorer of the Arctic, the man that history hascredited as the first human to set foot on the North Pole. But, in fact, a man of African descent,Matthew Henson, was the first person to set foot on the ice of the North Pole.

BRODIE“Matthew Henson, to me, is the classic hero. Here’s a guy who literally went where no man had evergone before. Henson was self-educated. He learned a lot of what he learned about the world as acabin boy on a ship, where he sailed around the world and had a number of adventures. He and Pearybecame inseparable. As they got closer to the Pole on their sixth trip, after five failures, Peary wasweak. He had a very severe case of frostbite. He was in very bad health, and he sent Henson on aheadspecifically because he wanted that man to be the one to make the first step.”

HENSON’S NIECE(Actor)

“And when my Uncle Matthew told us about his adventures with Admiral Peary, he showed us awhole lot of stuff he got from the people who lived up in the Arctic. And when Peary told him hewould be the first one ever to walk on the North Pole, he was so proud. And he made us proud. UncleMatthew even had a map of the trip in his house. But when I told the story at school, my teacher reallylet me have it.”

TEACHER(Actor)

“That’s a very nice story young lady. But if you did your homework with our history textbook, you cansee that it was really the admiral who did all this. So I think it would be better if you wouldn’t makethings up that aren’t true.”

NARRATORSo, according to the niece’s teacher, her uncle was not in the book, therefore, her story couldn’t be true.I t ’s in this way that the accomplishments of black people have so often been ignored — and written outof the history books entirely.

Ned: 1800s

PATENT OFFICIAL(Actor reading)

“Sir: By reference to patent regulations, before the office has authority under law to consider an applicationfor letters of Patent, it is required that the applicant shall make oath or affirmation...”

NARRATORThe labor that harvested the very profitable crop of cotton that fed the textile mills of Europe with rawmaterial was literally the labor of slaves, the descendants of African peoples kidnapped and shippedacross the Atlantic in chains. And one of those slaves, a man we only know by his first name, lookedat the labor around the cotton plant and developed a breakthrough invention — a cotton scraper.Ned’s owner, a man named Oscar Stuart, saw the value of the invention, and wanted to get a patentfor himself. But the patent office had other ideas.

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PATENT OFFICIAL“...it is required that the applicant shall make oath or affirmation of citizenship. And as the laws of theUnited States do not recognize slaves as citizens, it is impossible for the Negro slave Ned to bring hisapplication before this office.”

BRODIE“So the patent just sort of hung out there and the product was up for grabs. After the Civil War, Stuartmade quite a bit of money off of this invention. As far as this man knew, there were no people whowere not slaves who had come up with anything that he’d known of. So for him it was justification forthat. Everybody knew it. In fact, that was one of the ironies of this. Everyone knew that Ned wasindeed the creator of this. But there was a culture there that gave credit to the slave owner and notthe actual slave. In a way, Stuart was credited with being clever enough to have purchased this particularperson and had him in his employ. So when Stuart marketed the product, he told the whole world,‘This was invented by one of mine, one of the people I own.’ And he got a number of endorsementsfrom people, including one farmer who said, ‘This is proof that slavery is a good thing.’ He said,‘Name me one free [black] person who ever invented anything.’”

Benjamin Banneker: 1731-1806

BENJAMIN BANNEKER(Actor writing)

“Mr. President: I suppose it is a truth too well-attested to you, to need a proof here, that we are a raceof Beings who have long laboured under the abuse and censure of the world...”

NARRATORThis free black man lived in the late 1700s and maintained an active correspondence with ThomasJefferson. His name was Benjamin Banneker, and he was a truly amazing figure. The son of freeblacks, he spent his youth on a farm. In 1791, Banneker was on a three-man team that designed thenation’s new capital, Washington, D.C.

BANNEKER“...who have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt, and who have long been consideredrather as brutish than human; and scarcely capable of mental endowments. But, sir, how pitiable it isto reflect that, although you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of mankind, andof his equal and impartial distribution of those rights which he had conferred upon them, that youshould at the same time counteract his mercies in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a partof my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression.”

BRODIE“Here was a guy, Jefferson, who is world-renowned. He writes the Declaration of Independence, hewrites the Constitution, he writes these incredible landmark documents on human dignity, on therights of individuals. But here’s a guy who probably owned one of the largest plantations on the EastCoast. He would write, ‘Well, this Banneker guy’s really great — how come there aren’t more of them?I wish they were all as smart as him, then we wouldn’t have to dislike you people so much.’”

NARRATORIn 1792, Banneker published an almanac, full of weather information, medical remedies, poems,phases of the moon, essays, and more.


Banneker’s fame as an astronomer and writer did not spare him from condescending attitudes, evenfrom admirers like Thomas Jefferson, because few whites could completely abandon racism, evenwhen faced with a genius like Banneker.

BRODIE“I think that was maybe one of the ironies of Banneker’s life — he really pushed people to the limits interms of their thinking, but he couldn’t push them far enough.”

NARRATORSlaves faced insurmountable roadblocks when it came to innovation, because they had no hope ofbenefitting from anything they invented. And, as we’ve seen with Banneker, the free blacks with greattalents in the sciences and mechanical arts also had to face exceptional obstacles. But the late 1800swas the beginning of a new industrial era in America, and this growing machine age opened newopportunities for blacks, especially those in crafts, where their own powers of observation might beenough to help them make useful breakthroughs.

Granville Woods: 1856-1910

NARRATORG r a nville Woods was the inventor of a new steam boiler, an electrical transmitter that could communicateto railroad trains, and much more. He was also the owner of a large Cincinnati electrical manufacturingcompany in the 1880s. Woods was not a typical black man of his era.

BRODIE“Granville Woods, very early on, earned the nickname ‘the Black Thomas Edison.’ He had 35 patentsin electrical devices, more than 150 patents altogether. In fact, I think he may have been the only personto sue Thomas Edison twice — and win. He sued him over patent infringements. And after winningthe second time, Edison said, ‘I guess if I can’t beat ’em, I should get him to join me.’ He offered theman a job and Woods said, ‘No thank you. I think I’ll do for myself.’”

Jan Earnst Matzeliger: 1852-1889

NARRATORIn this era, many black innovators still struggled against enormous odds simply to benefit financiallyfrom their inventions.

Jan Earnst Matzeliger, for example, worked on his own at home to design, build, and patent a “shoe-lasting machine,” which automatically stitched the shoe leather to the side of the shoe. But Matzeligerhad to work as a cobbler to make ends meet. In 1890, he sold his patent to some businessmen, one ofwhom formed the multimillion dollar United Shoe Machinery Corporation. But Matzeliger neverbecame rich from his invention. He lived out his life in poverty and died of tuberculosis in 1886 at theage of 37.

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Elijah McCoy: 1843-1929

BRODIE“McCoy — anybody who drives a car, runs a lawn mower, runs any piece of equipment that has to beoiled, owes this man a debt of gratitude. Elijah McCoy came up with an automatic lubrication system.And to understand how important this was you have to remember that there was a time when heavymachinery, in order to be oiled properly, had to be turned off. You had to turn the thing off, go aroundto all the different key spots and actually apply the oil to it.”

NARRATORBut McCoy also ran into difficulties. He was often asked to speak or consult with some company onlyto be told not to come when it was learned that he was black. Some businesses even canceled ordersfor his lubricator for this reason — even though they needed the machine badly.

George Washington Carver: 1860-1943

NARRATORSuch humiliations might consume most people in anger. How could a creative genius function undersuch pressures? Many could not. One who certainly was able to was George Washington Carver.

For 46 years, Carver taught botany and did research at the famous all-black Tuskegee Institute inAlabama. There, he performed his famous experiments on peanuts, sweet potatoes, pecans, andother crops. He became an authority throughout the South on crop rotation and plant diseases.Business tycoons and presidents honored him. A Hollywood movie was even made about him.

BRODIE“Carver is a complex person to talk about. He was a person of obvious genius. I mean, he created morethan 300 or so inventions — only patented three of them. There were some who looked at Carver as ahero. But he was also a role model that was chosen for the black community by people outside of thatc o m m u n i t y. And it’s a shame, because I think that sometimes clouds the genius of this man.”

Garrett Augustus Morgan: 1877-1963

GARRETT AUGUSTUS MORGAN(Actor)

“And on my promotional tour of the southern states, I had to pose as Big Chief Mason, a full-bloodedIndian from the Walpole reservation in Canada.”

NARRATORGarrett Augustus Morgan was every bit as bright and determined as George Washington Carver. Butthe inventor of the gas mask and the automatic traffic signal — like McCoy — was never able to fullybenefit from his inventions.

MORGAN“But more often than not, I had to use the services of a white man to pose as me. Even in the so-called ‘friendlier climes’ of the North, when I went in to use my safety hood to rescue those men in

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the explosion near Cleveland — when the publicity of my efforts came out, the whole world knew thecolor of my skin. And immediately we began to receive cancellations of orders of my product.”

BRODIE“It’s very sad when you think of people who are so creative and are driven by this idea of wanting tocreate something, but always at some point they’ve got to come to grips with this notion that, ‘I’m notthe right person to invent this. I’m not the right person to create this.’ I always wonder what sort oftoll it took on them personally.”

Madam C.J. Walker: 1867-1919Annie Malone: 1869-1957

NARRATORIf Morgan found it hard to compete fairly in a white world, Madam C.J. Walker and Annie Malone cer-tainly must have also. As women, they faced the double obstacle of racism and skepticism many felttoward any female entrepreneur.

BRODIE“If you want to get an idea of a hero that’s probably not as dramatic, I would take someone like aMadam C.J. Walker. A woman who basically came from very little, you know, from the rural South,built a hair care industry, who built what — if anybody’s had an Avon person come to their door,Madam Wa l k e r’s the one responsible for that. She’s created this idea of the door-to-door sales person.She looked at her employees, the women that worked for her, as empowered people, as people whohad a chance to create for themselves, you know, their own wealth. One thing that I need to correctabout Madam Walker — Madam Walker was always credited with inventing the hot comb, thestraightening comb. She actually is not the one that has the patent for that. The patent is actuallyowned by another black woman named Annie Malone. Madam Walker, for a brief time, worked forAnnie Malone, and the two were rivals for a number of years in the hair care and the black cosmeticsindustry. And both of them had this idea of empowerment. She and Walker were the first women ofany race in this country who were self-made millionaires — who started from scratch, who startedwith nothing, and literally built and amassed fortunes. Those to me are heroes because they did morethan just build something for themselves. They also created this sense in others that the same thingwas possible for themselves.”

Ernest Everett Just: 1883-1940

NARRATORErnest Everett Just was a pioneer in cell biology. For more than 20 years, he did breakthroughresearch at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. It’s clear that many of hiscolleagues admired his work greatly.

He won numerous awards for his work worldwide. Yet at home, he never received the honors hedeserved.

BRODIE“So Just left the United States in anger, looking for work with anybody who would respect his genius. Imean, he even wrote a letter to Benito Mussolini asking him for a job. Mussolini never responded. But herewas a guy with all of that talent who eventually was eaten up by his own anger and his own bitterness,

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and his own feeling that he would never, ever be respected for what he was. Just, in a lot of ways,may have suffered more because he was smart enough to know that he wasn’t being treated well. Hewas smart enough to know what was going on with him.”

Percy Julian: 1899-1975

NARRATORPercy Julian was much more positive in his views than Just. Yet Julian also found himself faced withthe absurdity of getting honors for his work while facing discrimination and hatred for his race.

BRODIE“Percy Julian was known as the ‘soybean chemist’ because he was able to find ways of using soybeanoil to develop medicines. Specifically, he found one that was a treatment for arthritis. He also foundone that was a treatment for glaucoma. In addition, he came up with a use of soybeans that could beapplied to the manufacture of birth control pills. He also, and this one’s kind of funny, he also came upwith a weather-proof coating for battleships.

“He had always to deal with the things that Ernest Just and others had to deal with — this notion that,‘Wow, you’re really smart and we really like you. But we’re sorry, we just don’t hire people who looklike you.’ A number of universities turned him down as a potential student. He applied for a position,in fact, in Appleton, Wisconsin, and was given the job — only to find out that there was a law on thebooks that said it was illegal for a black to sleep in the town. So he ended up not taking that job. Heended up signing on with Glidden in Chicago, where he developed most of his inventions.”

NARRATORWe have only seen a small sampling of the stories and products of African American innovators. Wehave not mentioned dry cleaning processes, kazoos, or tunable lasers, or most of the hundreds ofpatents issued to black inventors before 1900. What we have seen is the struggle to overcome theenormous odds against creating anything new no matter who you are; and the even more astronomicalodds of getting credit for your work — the credit that should come as financial reward for valuablework. And, perhaps more importantly, the credit that should come from the history books as anacknowledgement of the contribution.

BRODIE“Imagine if you will, a person who has the law against them. Has their society against them. Has theirown personal self-doubt working against them. And despite all of that, they’re able to create something,anything, that’s positive. Forget the fact that these guys created something brilliant. The fact that youcould create anything at all out of that is something of a miracle. That these people were able to createsomething bigger than that, you know, something that still influences the lives of all of us, is incredible.

“I’d like for people who are younger to look at these people as possible role models because they’renot that much different than you and I. And there’s a lesson in that, especially for African Americankids who today are bombarded with images of drugs and violence and a notion that that’s all thatthey’ll ever become. What we work on is making sure that the barriers against your hard work payingoff are going to be removed. That’s what our struggles are about: removing the barriers and allowingthe excellence that’s inside of you to grow for all the world to see. That’s what I get out of doing this.That’s what I’ve gotten out of this project. And I think that’s why I’ll never forget the experience I hadin writing this book.”


Bibliography

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Brodie, James Michael. Created Equal: The Lives and Ideas of Black American Innovators. New York: William Morrow and Co., 1993.

Bundles, A’Lelia Perry. Madam C.J. Walker: Entrepreneur. New York: Chelsea House, 1991.

Burt, McKinley. Black Inventors of America. Portland, Ore.: National Book Company, 1989.

Carter-Ives, Patricia. Creativity and Invention: The Genius of Afro-Americans and Women in the United States and their Patents. Arlington, Va.: Research Unlimited, 1988.

Carver, George Washington, ed. by Gary R. Kremer. George Washington Carver in his Own Words. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987.

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Gilman, Michael. Matthew Henson: Explorer. New York: Chelsea House, 1988.

Haber, Louis. Black Pioneers of Science and Invention. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1970.

James, Portia P. The Real McCoy: African American Invention and Innovation, 1619-1930. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1989.

Klein, Aaron. Hidden Contributors: Black Scientists and Inventors in America. New York: Doubleday, 1971.

Lewis, Claude. Benjamin Banneker — The Man Who Saved Washington. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981.

M c M u r r y, Linda O. George Washington Carver: Scientist and Symbol. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.

Mitchell, Barbara. A Pocketful of Goobers: A Story About George Washington Carver. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, 1986.

Williams, James C. Recognition at Last: The Story of Black Inventors in America. Chicago: BCA Publishing, 1978.

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