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. 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!
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. 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.
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.
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 ironing board is a product was invented by sarah boone an african american women who was born enslaved.
My page’s mission is to inform of history that most people didn't learn in school. You can support through donation/tips on or just share my posts 🖤 https://t.co/e9BLBs0cG1ko-fi.com/africanarchives
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
One in every four cowboys was believed to be a Black man released from slavery despite the stories told in popular books and movies although the most famous cowboys of the old west were white.
Some notable cowboys!
A THREAD
Many of the enslaved african men were familiar with cattle herding from Africa.
a highlight of some famous black cowboys:
Bill Pickett (1871-1932), rodeo performer.
World famous black cowboy Bill Pickett "Dusky Demon" invented the rodeo sport, bulldogging (steer wrestling). In 1989 was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.
Joseph Phillipe Lemercier Laroche and his children were the only black passengers on RMS Titanic.
A THREAD
Joseph Phillipe Lemercier Laroche was the son of a white French army captain and a Haitian woman who was a descendant of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the first ruler of independent Haiti.
Laroche’s uncle, Dessalines M. Cincinnatus, was president of Haiti from 1911 to 1912.
German colonizers in Namibia, due to their interest in evolutionary theory & missing links executed inmates and decapitated them.
Herero women were required to remove all flesh from the heads to create clean skulls suitable for shipment for study in German Institutes.
A THREAD
The German missionaries began working in Southern Africa in the late 1820s and experienced significant success in evangelizing and educating their converts. But toward the end of the 19th century, a new ‘gospel’ was increasingly introduced to Africa.
Germans, many indoctrinated in Social Darwinian ideas, colonized South West Africa (Namibia) in the 1880s.
They generally regarded the Herero people as primitive and frequently referred to them as 'subhuman' and 'baboons!'
The Banyole of the ancient kingdom Of Uganda practiced and perfected C-Section long before the Europeans.
While Europeans mainly concentrated on saving the baby, the ugandans were performing the operation successfully saving both.
A THREAD
Caesarean section was considered a life-threatening procedure in England that was only to be undertaken in the direst of circumstances and facing the decision on whether to save the life of the mother or baby.
The first successful C-section done in Africa ("success" defined as both surviving) is usually credited to Irish surgeon James Barry (Margaret Ann Bulkley), who performed the operation in Cape Town, South Africa.
In 1939 Billie Holiday recorded the first great protest song of the Civil Rights Movement, 'Strange Fruit’
The Chilling Story of Strange Fruit and Billie Holiday.
A THREAD!
"Strange Fruit" was originally a poem written by Jewish-American writer, teacher and songwriter Abel Meeropol, under his pseudonym Lewis Allan, as a protest against lynchings and later set it to music.
The song soon came to Billie Holiday's attention & after so many frequent requests of that song, she closed out EVERY performance with it. The waiters would stop serving ahead of time for complete silence, the room would darken, a spotlight would shine on Holiday's face…
On this day in 1865, the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery.
This picture is 25 years after the end of slavery.
How Slavery continued after the 13th amendment ‘abolished slavery’
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’