Bessie Blount was born in Hickory, Virginia in 1914. She left Hickory for New Jersey, where she studied at Panzar College of Physical Education to become a physical therapist.

She left New Jersey to finish her education in Chicago. She began working with injured World War II amputees. While she worked at helping her patients regain their independence, eating was the most difficult task for them to manage by themselves.

In response to her patients’ difficulty, Blount invented a device to assist them. A mouthful of food was delivered through a tube each time the patient bit down on the tube. The device could be used while lying down or sitting up.

By 1951, Blount had moved back to Newark, New Jersey where she began teaching physical therapy at the Bronx Hospital in New York. She tried to market her device, but was unsuccessful. Instead she decided to patent another device called the portable receptacle support. While its purpose was the same, this device was composed of a brace that was worn around the patient’s neck and was used to support a bowl or other dish.

However, Blount was not able to successfully market this device either and she was unable to get the Veteran's Administration to use it. Therefore, she signed over her rights to the French government in 1952.

According to Bessie Blount, despite not being able to successfully market her inventions, she was able to prove that "a black woman can invent something for the benefit of humankind."

Thomas Jennings, First African American to Receive a Patent

Thomas Jennings was the first African American to receive a patent, on March 3, 1821 (U.S. patent3306x). Thomas Jennings' patent was for a dry-cleaning process called "dry scouring". The first money Thomas Jennings earned from his patent was spent on the legal fees (my polite way of saying enough money to purchase) necessary to liberate his family out of slavery and support the abolitionist cause.

Under the United States patent laws of 1793 and 1836, both slaves and freedman could patent their inventions. However, in 1857, a slave-owner named Oscar Stuart patented a "double cotton scraper" that was invented by his slave. Historical records only show the real inventor's name as being Ned. Stuart's reasoning for his actions was that, "the master is the owner of the fruits of the labor of the slave both manual and intellectual". In 1858, the U.S. patent office changed the patent laws, in response to the Oscar Stuart vs Ned case, in favor of Oscar Stuart. Their reasoning was that slaves were not citizens, and could not be granted patents. But surprising in 1861, the Confederate States of America passed a law granting patent rights to slaves. In 1870, the U .S. government passed a patent law giving all American men including blacks the rights to their inventions.

Thomas Jennings was born in 1791. He was 30 years old when he was granted a patent for a dry cleaning process. Thomas Jennings was a free tradesman and operated a dry cleaning business in New York City. His income went mostly to his abolitionist activities. In 1831, Thomas Jennings became assistant secretary for the First Annual Convention of the People of Color in Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams
Born: January 18, 1856
Died: August 4, 1931
Birthplace: Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania Dr. Daniel Hale Williams: Surgeon

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, a pioneer in open heart surgery was born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Attended formal schooling in Hare's Classical Academy in 1877 and received his M.D. from Chicago Medical College, Northwestern Medical School, in 1883. He helped to found the Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses.

In 1893 Dr. Daniel Hall Williams performed the first open heart surgery by removing a knife from the heart of a stabbing victim. He sutured a wound to the pericardium (the fluid sac surrounding the myocardium), from which the patient recovered and liv ed for several years afterward. He established a training school for nurses. He was the first Surgeon in Chief to divide the Freemen's Hospital in Washington, D.C. into separate departments to treat specific conditions: Medical, Surgical, Gynecological , Obstetrical, Dermatological, Genito-Urinary, and Throat and Chest. In 1891 he founded the Provident Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago, the oldest free-standing black owned hospital in the United States.

Dr. Williams was the only African-American in a group of 100 charter members of the American College of Surgeons in 1913. He founded and became the first vice-president of the national Medical Association. Dr. Williams was awarded by a bill in the United States Congress in 1970 that issued a commemorative stamp in his honor.

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He began his studies of medicine as an apprentice under Dr. Henry Palmer, a prominent surgeon. Dr. Palmer had three apprentices and all were accepted in 1890 into a three-year program at the Chicago Medical School, which was affiliated with Northwestern University Medical School. It was considered one of the best medical schools. Daniel graduated with an M.D. degree in 1883.

Dr. Williams' began practice in Chicago at a time when there were only three other black physicians in Chicago. He secured an appointment at the South Side Dispensary, where he could practice medicine and surgery. He had appointments with the City Railway Company and the Protestant Orphan Asylum. He also maintained his affiliation with Northwestern Medical School for four years while serving as an anatomy instructor.

Considered a thoughtful and skilled surgeon, Dr. Williams' practice grew as he treated both black and white patients. But he was acutely aware of the limited opportunities for black physicians. In 1889, he was appointed to the Illinois State Board of Health (now known as the Illinois Department of Public Health), and worked with medical standards and hospital rules. He was aware of the prejudice against black patients in hospitals and the inferior treatment that was often dispensed.

In 1890, Reverend Louis Reynolds, whose sister Emma was refused admission to nursing schools because she was black, approached Dr. Williams for help. This led to the founding of the Provident Hospital and Nursing Training School in 1891. The first years of the hospital were challenging, but successful. Dr. Williams insisted that his physicians remain abreast of emerging medical discoveries. He himself earned widespread renown as a surgeon in July 1893 when a young man named James Cornish entered the Hospital with chest stab wounds. Dr. Williams performed a new type of surgery to repair a tear in the heart lining, saving his life.

In 1893, a friend, Judge Walter Q. Grisham, requested that he apply for the position of surgeon-in-chief at Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C. He served at Freedmen's Hospital from 1894 until 1898. He established a model internship program for graduate physicians and helped guide other improvements leading to a decline in the hospital mortality rate and a large number of surgical cases. In December 1895, he helped organize the National Medical Association (NMA), which was, at the time, the only national organization open to black physicians. He was selected to serve as its first vice president.

In 1898, he married Alice Johnson, a school teacher that he had met in Washington D.C., and they returned to Chicago. He returned to Provident where he became chief of surgery and in 1902 performed another breakthrough operation, successfully suturing a patient's spleen. He continued to develop his private practice in Chicago and to expand his involvement in community affairs.

Despite his national prominence, Dr. Williams faced differences with Provident's administrators and other physicians, principally over hospital privilege issues. Yet, he continued working at Provident and maintained an active national travel schedule until 1912, when he resigned from Provident after being appointed attending staff surgeon at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago (now known as Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center). He served as an attending surgeon at St. Luke's Hospital until 1926. He remained in active practice in Chicago until he suffered a stroke in 1926. He then moved to Idlewild, Michigan where he lived in retirement until his death in 1931.

Garrett Morgan

Gas Mask and Automatic Traffic Signal

Garrett Morgan was an inventor and businessman from Cleveland, who invented a device called the Morgan safety hood and smoke protector in 1914. On July 25, 1916, Garrett Morgan made national news for using his gas mask to rescue 32 men trapped during an explosion in an underground tunnel 250 feet beneath Lake Erie. Morgan and a team of volunteers donned the new "gas masks" and went to the rescue. After the rescue, Morgan's company received requests from fire departments around the country who wished to purchase the new masks. The Morgan gas mask was later refined for use by U.S. Army during World War I. In 1914, Garrett Morgan was awarded a patent for a Safety Hood and Smoke Protector. Two years later, a refined model of his early gas mask won a gold medal at the International Exposition of Sanitation and Safety, and another gold medal from the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

Automatic Traffic Signal
Morgan was an African-American businessman and inventor whose curiosity and innovation led to the development of many useful and helpful products. A practical man of humble beginnings, Garrett Morgan devoted his life to creating things that made the lives of other people safer and more convenient. Among his inventions was an early illuminated traffic signal, that greatly improved safety on America's streets and roadways. Indeed, Garrett Morgan's technology was the basis for modern traffic signal systems and was an early example of what we know today as Intelligent Transportation Systems. The Inventor's Early Life
The son of former slaves, Garrett Morgan was born in Paris, Kentucky on March 4, 1877. His early childhood was spent attending school and working on the family farm with his brothers and sisters. While still a teenager, he left Kentucky and moved north to Cincinnati, Ohio in search of opportunity.

Although Garrett Morgan's formal education never took him beyond elementary school, he hired a tutor while living in Cincinnati and continued his studies in English grammar. In 1895, Morgan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he went to work as a sewing machine repair man for a clothing manufacturer. News of his proficiency for fixing things and experimenting traveled fast and led to numerous job offers from various manufacturing firms in the Cleveland area.

In 1907, Morgan opened his own sewing equipment and repair shop. It was the first of several businesses he would establish. In 1909, he expanded the enterprise to include a tailoring shop that employed 32 employees. The new company turned out coats, suits and dresses, all sewn with equipment that Garrett Morgan himself had made.

In 1920, Garrett Morgan moved into the newspaper business when he established the Cleveland Call. As the years went on, he became a prosperous and widely respected business man, and he was able to purchase a home and an automobile. Indeed it was Morgan's experience while driving along the streets of Cleveland that led to the invention of the nation's first patented traffic signal. The Garrett Morgan Traffic Signal
The first American-made automobiles were introduced to U.S. consumers shortly before the turn of the century. The Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903 and with it American consumers began to discover the adventures of the open road. In the early years of the 20th century, it was not uncommon for bicycles, animal-powered wagons and new gasoline-powered motor vehicles to share the same streets and roadways with pedestrians. Accidents were frequent. After witnessing a collision between an automobile and a horse-drawn carriage, Morgan was convinced that something should be done to improve traffic safety. While other inventors are reported to have experimented with and even marketed traffic signals, Garrett A. Morgan was the first to apply for and acquire a U.S. patent for such a device. The patent was granted on November 20, 1923. Morgan later had the technology patented in Great Britain and Canada as well.

The Morgan traffic signal was a T-shaped pole unit that featured three positions: Stop, Go and an all-directional stop position. This “third position” halted traffic in all directions to allow pedestrians to cross streets more safely.

Garrett Morgan's traffic management device was used throughout North America until it was replaced by the red, yellow and green-light traffic signals currently used around the world. The inventor sold the rights to his traffic signal to the General Electric Corporation for $40,000. Shortly before his death, in 1963, Garrett Morgan was awarded a citation for his traffic signal by the United States Government. Other Morgan Inventions
Garrett Morgan was constantly experimenting to develop new concepts. Though the traffic signal came at the height of his career and became one of his most renowned inventions, it was just one of several innovations he developed, manufactured and sold over the years.

Morgan invented a zig-zag stitching attachment for manually operated sewing machine. He also founded a company that made personal grooming products, such as hair dying ointments and the curved-tooth pressing comb.

As word of Garrett Morgan’s life-saving inventions spread across North America and England, demand for these products grew. He was frequently invited to conventions and public exhibitions to demonstrate how his inventions worked.

Garrett Morgan died on August 27, 1963, at the age of 86. His life was long and full, and his creative energies have given us a marvelous and lasting legacy.