Inventions that would not exist without Black Women.
—A THREAD—
Valerie Thomas, NASA physicist, invented 3D Movies
In 1977, she began to develop the illusion transmitter, the 1st mechanism that allowed images to be viewed in 3D using concave mirrors & rays of light.
Dr. Shirley Jackson research paved the way for numerous developments in telecommunication including the Touch-Tone Telephone, the Portable Fax, Caller ID & Call Waiting.
She was the first black woman to ever earn a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Mary Beatrice Kenner changed the world of feminine care with the invention of the sanitary belt, the forerunner of sanitary pads.
Her creation was considered to be the first form of modern menstruation protection.
In 1919, Alice Parker invented a gas furnace that supplied central heating for entire homes and buildings! It became the foundation for modern heating.
For all those who love baking, but want the task to be made easy as possible. Anna M. Mangin foresaw your needs. She invented the pastry fork in 1891.
The first home security system and CCTV was invented by a black nurse, Marie Van Brittan Brown.
Thanks to her, we can all feel safer in our homes.
Dr. Patricia Era Bath, 1981. Inventor of the Laserphaco Probe, used worldwide in eye surgery to remove cataracts. Bath founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness.
She restored sight to millions of people suffering from cataracts.
Dr. Gladys West helped develop the GPS (Global Positioning System). She is responsible for the math used in GPS technology.
You can thank her the next time you use any navigation device like Google Maps to get around!
The ironing board is a product was invented by sarah boone an african american women who was born enslaved.
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On this day in 1947, Activist & member of the Black Panther Party Mark Clark was born.
He was assassinated together with Fred Hampton by Chicago police & FBI, both at 21 years Old.
William O'Neal, an FBI informant, infiltrated the Panthers & set up them up for $300
A THREAD
In Illinois, where Fred Hampton was born, Black communities faced relentless police harassment and systemic barriers to essential services like housing and education in predominantly Black areas.
The Black Panther party, a creation of Huey Newton and fellow student Bobby Seale, insisted on black nationalist response to racial discrimination. The party’s Illinois chapter was opened in 1967 and Hampton joined in 1968, aged just 20.
Vicente Guerrero, a black and indigenous mule driver, became a revolutionary leader, Mexico’s 2nd president and abolished but ultimately executed.
The first Black President of Mexico.
A THREAD
Born in 1782 in Tixtla, Guerrero’s Afro-Mexican father, Juan Pedro, and Indigenous mother, Guadalupe Saldaña, shaped his roots. He worked as a mule driver, spoke Nahuatl, and built deep ties with Indigenous communities.
In 1810, he joined the Mexican War of Independence under José María Morelos. Despite no formal education, Guerrero’s courage and tactics stood out, fighting Spanish colonial rule with the motto “La patria es primero” (My country comes first).
Aunt Polly Jackson, was an escaped slave who worked as an agent on the Underground Railroad helping others escape.
She was known for fighting off slave catchers with a butcher knife and a kettle of boiling water.
A THREAD!
Aunt Polly Jackson, a former enslaved person, was fed up with the harsh and inhumane treatment that was meted out to her even in her old age and decided to escape to freedom.
She decided to escape via the Underground Railroad. She escaped and ended up in the North settling in Ohio in a settlement known as Africa, a settlement of escaped African Americans who had been offered land to settle.
On this day in 1865, enslaved people in Texas were notified by Union Civil War soldiers about the abolition of slavery. This was 2.5 years after the final Emancipation Proclamation which freed all enslaved Black Americans. #Juneteenth
But Slavery continued…
A THREAD
In 1866, a year after the amendment was ratified, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina began to lease out convicts for labor.
This made the business of arresting black people very lucrative, thus hundreds of white men were hired by these states as police officers.
Their primary responsibility being to search out and arrest black peoples who were in violation of ‘Black Codes’
Eatonville was the first all-Black city that was incorporated in Florida in 1887, located 6 miles north of Orlando.
It's the oldest black incorporated municipality in the U.S. It is the first town successfully established by African American freedmen.
THREAD!
The founding of this town stands as an enormous achievement for once enslaved black men and women. Having to live life being considered inferior to the white majority, African Americans finally found some freedom for themselves in Eatonville.
The town is the childhood home of Zora Neale Hurston, the most famous writer of the Harlem Renaissance she described it in 1935: "the city of five lakes, three croquet courts, 300 brown skins, 300 good swimmers, plenty guavas, two schools and no jailhouse." .
Gert Schramm, aged 15, was arrested and imprisoned in Nazi Germany for the 'crime' of being Mixed Race. He was the only Black prisoner at Buchenwald.
A THREAD
In May 1944, the Gestapo( official secret police of Nazi Germany) arrested Schramm in Erfurt under Rassenschande (racial defilement) laws, which criminalized relationships between “Aryans” and “non-Aryans” to enforce Nazi racial purity.
Schramm’s heritage—Black American father, Jack Brankson, an engineer, and German mother, Marianne Schramm—made him a target. His existence defied the Nazis’ hateful ideology of purity.