List of African-American inventors and scientists

This list of African-American inventors and scientists documents many of the African Americans who have invented a multitude of items or made discoveries in the course of their lives. These have ranged from practical everyday devices to applications and scientific discoveries in diverse fields, including physics, biology, mathematics, plus the medical, nuclear and space sciences.

Among the earliest was George Washington Carver, whose reputation was based on his research into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, which aided in nutrition for farm families. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of other products to improve their way of life. The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes using peanuts.^[1] He also developed and promoted about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm. He received numerous honors for his work, including the Spingarn Medal of the NAACP.

A later renowned scientist was Percy Lavon Julian, a research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine, and a pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of the human hormones, steroids, progesterone, and testosterone, from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol. His work would lay the foundation for the steroid drug industry's production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills.

A contemporary example of a modern-day inventor is Lonnie George Johnson, an engineer. Johnson invented the Super Soaker water gun, which was the top-selling toy in the United States in 1991 and 1992. In 1980 Johnson formed his own law firm and licensed the Super Soaker water gun to Larami Corporation. Two years later the Super Soaker generated over $200 million in retail sales and became the best selling toy in America. Larami Corporation was eventually purchased by Hasbro, the second largest toy manufacturer in the world. Over the years, Super Soaker sales have totaled close to one billion dollars. Johnson reinvested a majority of his earnings from the Super Soaker into research and development for his energy technology companies – "It's who I am, it's what I do."^[2] Currently, Johnson holds over 80 patents, with over 20 more pending, and is the author of several publications on spacecraft power systems.^[3][4]

Inventors and scientists

Note: this table is viewable as a timeline when clicking on the sort symbol next to 'Life'.

Name	Life	Occupation	Inventions/accomplishments	Ref.
Amos, Harold	1918–2003	Microbiologist	First African-American department chair at Harvard Medical School	[5]
Alcorn, George Edward, Jr.	1940–	Physicist, inventor	Invented a method of fabricating an imaging X-ray spectrometer	[6][7]
Andrews, James J.	1930–1998	Mathematician	Put forth the Andrews–Curtis conjecture in group theory with Morton L. Curtis, still unsolved	[8]
Leonard C. Bailey	?–1918	Inventor	Folding bed	[9]
Ball, Alice Augusta	1892–1916	Chemist	Extracted chaulmoogra oil for the treatment of Hansen's disease (leprosy)	[10]
Banneker, Benjamin	1731–1806	Mathematician, astronomer, surveyor, clockmaker, author, farmer	Wooden clock (1753); assisted in survey of the original boundaries of the District of Columbia (1791); authored almanac and ephemeris (1792–1797)	[11]
Banyaga, Augustin	1947–	Mathematician	Work on diffeomorphisms and symplectomorphisms	[12]
Bashen, Janet	1957–	Inventor, entrepreneur, professional, consultant	First African-American woman to receive a patent for a web-based software invention, LinkLine, an Equal Employment Opportunity case management and tracking software	[13]
Bath, Patricia	1942–	Ophthalmologist	First African-American female physician to receive a patent for a medical invention; inventions relate to cataract surgery and include the Laserphaco Probe, which revolutionized the industry in the 1980s, and an ultrasound technique for treatment	[14][15][16]
Beard, Andrew	1849–1921	Farmer, carpenter, blacksmith, railroad worker, businessman, inventor	Janney coupler improvements; invented the car device #594,059 dated November 23, 1897; rotary engine patent #478,271 dated July 5, 1892	[17]
Bell, Earl S.	1977–	Inventor, entrepreneur, architect, industrial designer	Invented chair with sliding skin (2004) and the quantitative display apparatus (2005)	[18] [19] [20]
Benjamin, Miriam	1861–1947	Inventor, educator	Invented "Gong and Signal Chair for Hotels"; second African-American woman to receive a patent	[21]
Berry, Leonidas	1902–1995	Gastroenterologist	Gastroscope pioneer	[22]
Bharucha-Reid, Albert T.	1927–1985	Mathematician, statistician	Probability theory and Markov chain theorist	[23]
Black, Keith	1957–	Neurosurgeon	Brain tumor surgery and research	[24][25]
Blackwell, David	1919–2010	Mathematician, statistician	First proposed the Blackwell channel model used in coding theory and information theory; one of the eponyms of the Rao–Blackwell theorem, which is a process that significantly improves crude statistical estimators	[26]
Blair, Henry	1807–1860	Inventor	Second black inventor to issue a patent; invented early spark plug	[27] [28]
Boahen, Kwabena	19xx–	Bioengineer	Silicon retina able to process images in the same manner as a living retina	[29][30]
Boone, Sarah	1832–1905	Inventor	Ironing board allowing sleeves of women's garments to be ironed more easily	[31][32][33]
Bouchet, Edward	1852–1918	Physicist	First African-American to receive a Ph.D. in any subject; received physics doctorate from Yale University in 1876
Bowman, James	1923–2011	Physician	Pathologist and geneticist; Professor Emeritus Pritzker School of Medicine; first tenured African-American professor at the University of Chicago Division of Biological Sciences	[34][35]
Boykin, Otis	1920–1982	Inventor, engineer	Artificial heart pacemaker control unit	[36][37][38]
Brady, St. Elmo	1884–1966	Chemist	Published three scholarly abstracts in Science; collaborated on a paper published in the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry	[39]
Branson, Herman	1914–1995	Physicist, educator	Protein structure research	[40][41]
Brooks, Charles	1865– ?	Inventor	Street sweeper truck and a type of paper punch
Brooks, Phil	19xx–	Inventor	First US patent for a disposable syringe
Henry Brown	1832– ?	Inventor	Invented fire safe	[42]
Brown, Oscar E.	18xx– ?	Inventor	Received a patent for an improved horseshoe [43]
Burr, John Albert	18xx– ?	Inventor	Rotary-blade lawn mower patent	[44]
Cardozo, P. William	1905–1962	Pediatrician	Sickle cell anemia studies; in October 1937 he published "Immunologic Studies in Sickle Cell Anemia" in the Archives of Internal Medicine; many of the findings are still valid today
Carson, Ben	1951–	Pediatric neurosurgeon	Pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University; first surgeon to successfully separate craniopagus twins	[45]
Carver, George Washington	1865–1943	Botanical researcher	Discovered hundreds of uses for previously useless vegetables and fruits, principally the peanut	[46][47][48][49]
Charles W. Chappelle	1872–1941	Electrician, construction, international businessman, and aviation pioneer	Designed long-distance flight airplane; the only African-American to invent and display the airplane at the 1911 First Industrial Air Show held in conjunction with the Auto Show at Grand Central Palace in Manhattan in New York City; president of the African Union Company, Inc.	[50][51][52]
Chappelle, Emmett	1925–	Scientist and researcher	Valuable contributions to several fields: medicine, biology, food science, and astrochemistry
Clark, Mamie	1914–2005	Psychologist	Conducted 1940s experiments using dolls to study children's attitudes about race
Clark, Kenneth	1917–1983	Psychologist	First Black president of the American Psychological Association	[53]
Crosthwait, David, Jr.	1898–1976	Research engineer	Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning; received some 40 US patents relating to HVAC systems
Curtis, James H (Nick)]	1935-	Chemist] [(Electronics) | Speciality chemicals]	Cationic Dialdehyde polysaccharides for wet strength paper and others]	US Patent Office US Pat #3609467 US Pat #3547423 and others
Dabiri, John	1980–	Biophysicist	Expert on jellyfish hydrodynamics and designer of a vertical-axis wind farm adapted from schooling fish
Daly, Marie Maynard	1921–2003	Chemist	First black American woman with a Ph.D. in chemistry
Dean, Mark	1957–	Computer scientist	Led the team that developed the ISA bus, and led the design team responsible for creating the first one-gigahertz computer processor chip	[54][55][56]
Drew, Charles	1904–1950	Medical researcher	Developed improved techniques for blood storage
Du Chaillu, Paul	1831–1903	Zoologist Explorer Anthropologist	Explorer; first modern European outsider to confirm the existence of gorillas, and later the Pygmy people of central Africa; identified as white throughout life, but his mother was a Réunionnais mulatto; settled in America and considered it his country by adoption; the full aspects of his ancestry were not uncovered until 1979, and are still little known today
Easley, Annie	1933–2011[57]	Computer scientist	Work at the Lewis Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics	[58][59]
Ellis, Clarence "Skip"	1943–	Computer scientist	First African American with a Ph.D in computer science; software inventor including OfficeTalk at Xerox PARC	[60][61]
Ezerioha, Bisi	1972–	Automotive engineer	Drag racing engineer and driver
Ferguson, Lloyd Noel	1918–2011	Chemist, educator	Chemistry doctorate, first received (1943, University of California, Berkeley)	[62][63][64]
Fryer, Roland G., Jr.	1977–	Economist, social scientist, statistician	Inequality studies
Gates, Sylvester James	1950–	Theoretical physicist	Work on supersymmetry, supergravity, and superstring theory	[65][66]
Goode, Sarah E.	1855–1905	Inventor	Cabinet bed invention; first African-American woman to receive a patent in the United States	[67][68]
Gilbert, Juan E.	1969–	Computer scientist	Awarded the first Presidential Endowed Chair at Clemson University in honor of his accomplishments
Grant, George F.	1846–1910	Dentist, Professor	The first African-American professor at Harvard, Boston dentist, and inventor of a wooden golf tee.	[69]
Graves, Joseph L.	1955–	Evolutionary biologist		[70][71][72]
Greenaugh, Kevin	1956–	Nuclear engineer		[73]
Griffin, Bessie Blount	1914–2009	Physical therapist, inventor	Amputee self-feeding device	[74][75]
Hall, Lloyd	1894–1971	Chemist
Harris, James A.	1932–2000		Co-discovered Rutherfordium (element 104) and Dubnium (element 105) at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory	[76]
Hawkins, Walter Lincoln	1911–1992	Scientist	Inventor at Bell Laboratories	[77]
Hodge, John E.	1914–1996	Chemist
Holley, Kerrie	1954–	Research computer scientist at IBM	Co-creator of Service-Oriented Modeling and Architecture, SOMA and the Service Integration Maturity Model (SIMM)
Jarvis, Erich	19xx–	Neurobiologist	Duke University neuroscience bird songs studies	[78][79][80]
Johnson, Isaac	18xx– ?	Inventor	Held patent for improvements to the bicycle frame, specifically so it could be taken apart for compact storage	[81]
Johnson, Lonnie	1949–	Mechanical engineer, nuclear engineer, inventor	Invented Super Soaker while researching thermal energy transfer engines; worked with NASA; holder of over 80 patents	[4][82][83][84]
Jones, Frederick McKinley	1893–1961	Inventor	Invented refrigerated truck systems	[85]
Julian, Percy	1899–1975	Chemist	First to synthesize the natural product physostigmine; earned 130 chemical patents; lauded for humanitarian achievements	[86][87][88][89]
Just, Ernest	1883–1941	Woods Hole Marine Biology Institute biologist	Provided basic and initial descriptions of the structure–function–property relationship of the plasma membrane of biological cells	[90][91][92]
Kittles, Rick	1967–	Geneticist	Work in tracing the ancestry of African Americans via DNA testing	[93][94]
Kountz, Samuel L.	1930–1981	Transplant surgeon, researcher	Organ transplantation pioneer, particularly renal transplant research and surgery; author or co-author of 172 articles in scientific publications	[95][96][97][98]
Latimer, Lewis	1848–1928	Inventor, draftsman, expert witness	Worked as a draftsman for both Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison; became a member of Edison's Pioneers and served as an expert witness in many light bulb litigation lawsuits; said to have invented the water closet	[99][100][101][102]
Lawson, Jerry	1940–2011	Computer engineer	Designer of Fairchild Channel F, the first programmable ROM cartridge-based video game console	[103][104]
Lee, Raphael Carl	1949–	Surgeon, biomedical engineer	Paul and Aileen Russell Professor, Pritzker School of Medicine; MacArthur Fellow, Searle Scholar, founder and Chairman, Avocet Polymer Technologies, Inc.; founder and Chairman, Renacyte BioMolecular Technologies, Inc; discovered use of surfactant copolymers as molecular chaperones to augment endogenous injury repair mechanisms of living cells; holder of many patents covering scar treatment therapies, tissue engineered ligaments, brain trauma therapies, and protective garments
Lynk, Beebe Steven	1872–1948	Chemist	Teacher at West Tennessee University
Mahoney, Mary	1845–1926	Nurse	First African American to study and work as a professionally trained nurse in the United States [105]
Matzeliger, Jan	1852–1889	Inventor	Shoe assembly Machine	[106][107]
McBay, Henry	1914–1995	Chemist	His discoveries allowed chemists around the world to create inexpensive peroxide compounds	[108][109]
McCoy, Elijah	1844–1929	Inventor	Invented a version of the automatic lubricator for steam engines,McCoy learned a great deal of his skills from a mechanical apprenticeship when he was age fifteen .	[110][111]
McLurkin, James	1972–	Roboticist		[112]
McWhorter, John	1965–	Linguist	Specializes in the study of creole language formation
Montgomery, Benjamin	1819–1877	Inventor	Designed a steam operated propeller to provide propulsion to boats in shallow water
Moore, Willie Hobbs	1934–1994	Physicist	First African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Physics (University of Michigan Ann Arbor 1972) on vibrational analysis of secondary chlorides	[113]
Mensah, Thomas	1950-	Inventor
Nmezi, Murphy	1955–	Physician/biostatistician	Advances in path analysis and structural equation modeling
Nriagu, Jerome	1944–	Geochemist	Studies toxic metals in the environment; originator of the lead poisoning thesis of the decline of the Roman Empire
Ogbu, John Uzo	1939–2003	Anthropologist	Ethnic studies in education and economics	[114][115]
Olukotun, Kunle	19xx–	Computer scientist	Early advocate and researcher of multi-core processors
Oyekan, Soni	1946–	Chemical engineer	Inventions in oil refining
Poindexter, Hildrus	1901–1987	Bacteriologist, epidemiologist	Work on the epidemiology of tropical diseases, including malaria
Petters, Arlie	1964–	Physicist	Work on the mathematical physics of gravitational lensing
Quarterman, Lloyd Albert	1918–1982	Scientist, fluoride chemist	Manhattan Project, worked with Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi
Renfroe, Earl	1907–2000	Orthodontist		[116][117]
Rillieux, Norbert	1806–1894	Engineer, inventor	Inventor of the multiple-effect evaporator	[118]
Robinson, Larry	1957–	Environmental chemist	Investigated possible role of arsenic in the death of Zachary Taylor; interim president of Florida A&M University
Russell, Jesse	1948–	Engineer, inventor	Wireless communications engineer
Sammons, Walter	1890–1973	Inventor	Patent for hot comb	[119]
Sowell, Thomas	1930–	Economist, social scientist	Economist, social theorist and political philosopher	[120][121][122][123]
Steele, Claude	1946–	Psychologist, social scientist	Stereotype threat studies
Stiff, Lee	1941–	Mathematician	President of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics from 2000 to 2002	[124]
Snyder, Window	1976–	Computer engineer	Security engineer at Microsoft, Mozilla, and Apple
Temple, Lewis	1800–1854	Inventor, blacksmith, abolitionist	Inventor of the toggling whaling harpoon head	[125]
Thomas, Vivien	1910–1985	Surgical technician	Blue baby syndrome treatment in the 1940s	[126][127][128]
Turner, Charles Henry	1867–1923	Zoologist	First person to prove that insects can hear and can distinguish pitch, that cockroaches can learn by trial and error, and that honeybees can see color; first African-American to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago	[129]
Tyree, Bernadette	19xx–	Biochemist	Program Director at National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
Tyson, Neil deGrasse	1958–	Astronomer	Researcher and popular educator in astronomy and the sciences	[130][131][132]
Walker, Arthur B. C., Jr.	1936–2001	Astronomer	Developed normal incidence multilayer XUV telescopes to photograph the solar corona	[133][134][135]
Walker, C. J.	1867–1919	Inventor	Created black cosmetic products
Washington, Warren M.	1936–	Atmospheric scientist	Former chair of the National Science Board	[136][137][138][139]
West, James E.	1931–	Acoustician, inventor	Co-developed the foil electret microphone	[140][141][142]
Wilkins, J. Ernest, Jr.	1923–2011	Mathematician, engineer, nuclear scientist	Entered University of Chicago at age 13; Ph.D at 19; worked on the Manhattan Project; wrote over 100 scientific papers; helped recruit minorities into the sciences	[143][144][145]
Williams, Daniel	1856–1931	Surgeon	Performed the first successful open-heart surgery in the United States	[146]
Williams, Scott W.	1943–	Mathematician
Williams, Walter E.	1936–	Economist, social scientist		[147][148][149]
Woods, Granville	1856–1910	Inventor	Invented the synchronous multiplex railway telegraph	[150]
Wright, Jane C.	1919–2013	Cancer research and surgeon	Noted for her contributions to chemotherapy and for pioneering the use of the drug methotrexate to treat breast cancer and skin cancer
Wright, Louis T.	1891–1952	Surgeon	Led team that first used Aureomycin as a treatment on humans	[151][152][153]
Young, Roger Arliner	1899–1964	Zoologist	First African-American woman to receive a doctorate degree in zoology	[154][155]

See also

• History of United States patent law
• Lemelson–MIT Prize
• NASA spinoff
• National Inventors Hall of Fame
• Science and technology in the United States
• Technological and industrial history of the United States
• Timeline of United States discoveries
• Timeline of United States inventions
• United States patent law
• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• Yankee ingenuity
• African American women in computer science
• African-American women in medicine
• List of African-American women in STEM fields

References

1. Carver, George Washington. 1916. "How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption", Tuskegee Institute Experimental Station Bulletin 31.
2. Interview wp'ith CNBC's "How I Made my Millions"
3. Roche, Timothy. Soaking In Success, Time magazine, December 4, 2000.
4. Products Created by Independent Inventors, April 2, 2009, Inventors Digest.
5. "Dr. Harold Amos, 84; Mentor to Aspiring Minority Physicians". Los Angeles Times. 2003-03-08. Retrieved 2011-03-11.
6. "George Edward Alcorn, Jr.". About.com. Retrieved 2008-02-27.
7. "Alcorn exceled in missile research". Pittsburgh Post Gazette. February 20, 2002. Retrieved 2008-02-27. George Edward Alcorn Jr. attended Occidental College in Los Angeles where he earned eight letters in basketball and football and was an honors student studying physics. He received his bachelor's degree in 1962 and a master's in nuclear physics from Howard University a year later. He attended Occidental College in Los Angeles where he earned eight letters in basketball and football and was an honors student studying physics. He received his bachelor's degree in 1962 and a master's in nuclear physics from Howard University a year later.
8. Andrews, J. J.; Curtis, M. L. (1965), "Free groups and handlebodies", Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 16 (2): 192–195, doi:10.2307/2033843, JSTOR 2033843, MR 0173241.
9. , "Folding Bed" 
10. Mendheim, Beverly (September 2007). "Lost and Found: Alice Augusta Ball, an Extraordinary Woman of Hawai`i Nei". Northwest Hawaii Times. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
11. The ninth and tenth paragraphs of the "His Story" page in official website of the Washington Interdependence Council: Administrators of the Benjamin Banneker Memorial (Retrieved 2008-08-06), the fourth paragraph in the webpage entitled "Who was Benjamin Banneker?" in official website of the Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, 800 Euclid Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20001 (Retrieved 2009-11-12), the fourth paragraph in the section entitled "BENJAMIN BANNEKER (1731–1806)" in "Benjamin Banneker" page in website of "ChickenBones: A Journal for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes" (Retrieved 2008-08-06), the third paragraph in Newbold, K., "Benjamin Banneker: A Brief Biography" in official website of The James Madison Center, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia (Retrieved 2008-10-23), the first paragraph in the webpage entitled "Benjamin Banneker (1731–1806)" in official website of the Brookhaven National Laboratory (Retrieved 2008-08-08), the fifth and sixth paragraphs in "Benjamin Banneker in website of "The Black Inventor Online Museum" by Adscape International, LLC (Retrieved 2009-02-02), An Early American Hero: Benjamin Banneker in website of SuccessMaker Enterprise by Pearson Education, Inc. (Retrieved 2009-02-09), and the 1970 book by Claude Lewis entitled Benjamin Banneker: the man who saved Washington, New York, McGraw-Hill, relate part or all of this urban legend.
12. Institute for Advanced Study: A Community of Scholars
13. Janet Emerson Bashen, Retrieved from About.com website March 14, 2011.
14. Henderson, Susan K. (1 March 1998). African-American Inventors III. Capstone Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-56065-698-2.
15. Johnson Publishing Company (February 4, 2002). "Modern Black Inventors". Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. 101 (7): 55. ISSN 0021-5996. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
16. Lambert, Laura (1 September 2007). Inventors and Inventions. Marshall Cavendish. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-7614-7763-1.
17. Bellis, Mary (2008). "Andrew Beard (1849–1921)". About.com: Inventors. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
18. Earl S. Bell, Retrieved from About.com website June 06, 2011.
19. Earl S. Bell, Retrieved from uspto.gov website June 06, 2011.
20. Earl S. Bell, Retrieved from atlantapost.com website June 06, 2011.
21. Bellis, Mary. Inventors: Miriam Benjamin, Retrieved from About.com website, February 17, 2011.
22. University of Chicago
23. Williams, Scott W. (2008). "Mathematicians of the African Diaspora: Albert Turner Bharucha-Reid". The Mathematics Department of the State University of New York at Buffalo. Retrieved 2012-11-25.
24. Keith Black; Arnold Mann (2009-03-25). Brain Surgeon: A Doctor's Inspiring Encounters with Mortality and Miracles. Grand Central Life & Style. ISBN 978-0-446-58109-7.
25. Michael D. Lemonick, "The Tumor War", TIME, Heroes of Medicine special edition, Fall 1997 (retrieved May 15, 2009).
26. Cattau, Daniel (July 2009). "David Blackwell 'Superstar'". Illinois Alumni. University of Illinois Alumni Association. pp. 32–34.
27. Maryland's African American Heritage: Henry Blair, ThinkQuest.
28. About Inventors: Henry Blair
29. Kwabena Boahen, PhD, Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Stanford Bioengineering, Stanford School of Medicine, 2013.
30. IBM Seeks to Build the Computer of the Future Based on Insights from the Brain: IBM Awarded DARPA Funding for Cognitive Computing Collaboration, IBM Alden, November 20, 2008.
31. Sarah Boone, The Black Inventor On-Line Museum, Accessed December 6, 2012.
32. Patent US473653 – IRONING-BOARD – Google Patents
33. The History Woman
34. Terry, Don (July 27, 2008). "Insider has Obama's ear: What's she telling him?". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
35. "The Bowman Society". Pritzker Pulse. Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago. Spring 2005. Retrieved March 15, 2009.
36. U.S. Department of Energy. Black Contributors to Science and Energy Technology (Biographical sketch: Otis Boykin), U.S. Department Of Energy, Office of Public Affairs, U.S.Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1979, pp. 8–9, DOE/OPA-0035(79)
37. Mary Bellis, "Otis Boykin", About.com Guide.
38. "Inventor of Heart Stimulator Honored At Memorial Service." Dallas Morning News, March 18, 1982, p. 88.
39. University of Illinois biography, University of Illinois.
40. PNAS Classics – Protein Structure
41. Einseberg, David (2003). "The discovery of the alpha-helix and beta-sheet, the principal structural features of proteins". PNAS. 100 (20): 11207–11210. doi:10.1073/pnas.2034522100. PMC 208735. PMID 12966187.
42. "Henry Brown". blackinventor.com. Retrieved 2010-02-06."Henry Brown". blackinventor.com. Retrieved 2010-02-06.
43. "The History of Horseshoes". Inventors – About.com. Retrieved 2015-02-26.
44. Bellis, Mary. "John Albert Burr". About.com. Retrieved 2013-07-22.
45. Health and Medical Biographies.Biography of Benjamin S. Carson.
46. "Black Leonardo Book". Time Magazine. 1941-11-24. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
47. Harlan, Volume 5, p. 481
48. Special History Study from the National Park Service website
49. The legacy of George Washington Carver-Friends & Colleagues (Henry Wallace)
50. "A Successful Negro Aviator. Charles Ward Chappelle Invents and Aeroplane Which Attacks Attention." News/Opinion, Savannah Tribune, Page 1, February 11, 1911. Savannah, Georgia
51. "Mr. C.W. Chappelle: The Man, His Life, His Work And His Aspirations." The Gold Coast Nation. Page 3. June 28, 1919. Ghana.
52. The Crises: A Record of the Darker Races, "Social Uplift" (page 7), published by the National Association of Colored People (NAACP), May 11, 1911 in New York City.
53. Bio. True Story, "Kenneth Bancroft Clark Biography." Accessed December 7, 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/kenneth-bancroft-clark-9249475.
54. McCoy, Frank (1999-12-26). "He refined the desktop PC. Now he wants to kill it". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 2011-08-12. A year later, Dean led a team that built a 1,000-megahertz chip [...]
55. Angel, Jonathan (2011-08-10). "Thirty years later, the personal computer's obsolete, IBM PC designer says". linuxfordevices.com. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04. Retrieved 2011-08-12.
56. Dean, Mark (2011-08-12). "IBM Leads the Way in the Post-PC Era". A Smarter Planet. Retrieved 2011-08-12. I recently traded in my PC for a tablet computer [...]
57. http://obits.cleveland.com/obituaries/cleveland/obituary.aspx?n=annie-jean-easley&pid=152269470
58. The Plain Dealer obituary
59. Interview code OHI0026830
60. Skip Ellis, Retrieved from Computer Scientists of the African Diaspora web site March 6, 2012.
61. Skip Ellis, Retrieved from howstuffworks Extraordinary People website, March 6, 2012.
62. "Lloyd Ferguson, a pioneering African American professor/chemist from Cal State L.A., has died", Insight News, December 28, 2011
63. "Biographical Snapshots of Famous Women and Minority Chemists". Journal of Chemical Education. Retrieved 2011-01-17. |contribution= ignored (help).
64. Kessler, J. H.; Kidd, J. S.; Kidd, R. A.; Morin, K. H. (1996), Distinguished African American Scientists of the 20th Century, Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, pp. 94–99, ISBN 978-0-89774-955-8.
65. "UMD PCAST announcement". University of Maryland. Retrieved 2009-04-30.
66. Gates, S. James; M. T. Grisaru; M. Rocek; W. Siegel (1983). "Superspace". American Institute of Physics.
67. "Sarah Goode". Inventors. The Black Inventor On-Line Museum. 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
68. "Sarah E. Goode". Inventors. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
69. Vrabel, Jim (2004). When in Boston: A Time Line & Almanac. Northeastern University Press. p. 238. ISBN 9781555536213.
70. Dr. Joseph L. Graves, Jr.
71. Graves, Joseph L (January 1, 2002). "The Biological Case Against Race" (PDF). American Outlook. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 15, 2006. Retrieved November 15, 2006.
72. Joseph L. Graves, Jr., Ph.D.
73. "Alumni Honored at Black Engineer Gala News and Current Events, A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland". Engr.umd.edu. 2006-02-20. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
74. "Bessie Blount Griffin". www.csupomona.edu. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
75. "Virginia Women in History Past Honorees". www.lva.virginia.gov. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
76. "James A. Harris". Journal of Chemical Education. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
77. McMurray, Emily, ed. Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists. Gale Research, Inc.: Detroit, 1995.
78. Singing In The Brain, Duke Magazine, November–December 2001.
79. Duke News.
80. Erich Jarvis Named Howard Hughes Investigator, Duke Medicine News & Communications. Retrieved from Dukehealth.org.
81. Bicycle Frame, Patent number: 634823, Filing date: April 6, 1898, Issue date: October 10, 1899, United States Patent Office.
82. Soaking In Success, By Timothy Roche, December 4, 2000, TIME.
83. Shooting for the Sun, By Logan Ward, October 2010, The Atlantic
84. Lonni Johnson – Thermo-Electric Generator – articles, patent, The Rex Research Civilization Kit.
85. Rebecca Goodman; Barrett J. Brunsman (2005-02-28). This Day In Ohio History. Emmis Books. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-57860-191-2.
86. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bmjuli.html
87. "Percy Lavon Julian". Chemical Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
88. "Giants of the Past: Percy Lavon Julian (1899–1975) A Forgotten Pioneer in Soy". United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
89. "Percy Lavon Julian (1899–1975)". Lipid Library. Retrieved February 18, 2012.
90. Kelsey, Elizabeth. "Expansive Vision, Ahead of His Time: Dartmouth celebrates biologist E. E. Just, Class of 1907". Dartmouth Life. Dartmouth College. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
91. Manning, Kenneth R. (1984). Black Apollo of science : the life of Ernest Everett Just. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195034981.
92. Lee, Edward (March 2006). "Ernest Everett Just". Blacfax: 15–16.
93. Allen, Arthur (12 May 2000). "Flesh and blood and DNA". Salon. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
94. African American Lives 2, PBS.
95. – Stanford School of Medicine
96. – Journal of the National Medical Association – Sept. 1978
97. – Encyclopedia of Arkansas
98. – New York Times – Dec. 24, 1981
99. Rayvon Fouché (2003). Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation: Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer, & Shelby J. Davidson. JHU Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-7319-5.
100. Clarke, John Henrik (1983). Ivan Van Sertima, ed. Blacks in Science: Ancient and Modern. Piscataway,NJ: Transaction. pp. 230–233. ISBN 978-0-87855-941-1.
101. "Lewis Howard Latimer". National Park Service. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
102. List of 2006 NIHF inductees
103. "Fairchild Channel F – The First ROM Cartridge Console". About.com.
104. Weber, Bruce (April 13, 2011). "Gerald A. Lawson, Video Game Pioneer, Dies at 70". The New York Times.
105. Mahoney, Mary. "Mary Eliza". American Experience, PBS.
106. "Jan Matzeliger". The Black Inventor Online Museum.
107. "Inventor of the Week / Jan Matzeliger". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. August 2002.
108. Brown, Mitchell, [www.lib.lsu.edu/lib/chem/display/henry mcbay.html "Faces of Science: African-Americans in the Sciences,"] 1996.
109. Kessler, James H., J.S. Kidd, Renee A. Kidd, and Katherine A. Morin. Distinguished African-American Scientists of the 20th Century. Oryx Press: Phoenix, AZ, 1996.
110. "The not-so-real McCoy".
111. "Elijah McCoy, Inventor of the Week". Lemelson-MIT Program. May 1996. Retrieved August 18, 2011.
112. Article outlining McLurkin's "Innovative Lives" presentation for the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center
114. NY Times article
115. Acting White manuscript
116. Bike, William S. "Essays on Earl Renfroe" . UIC College of Dentistry Press, 2001.
117. Janega, James. Chicago Tribune. "Dr. Earl Renfroe Sr., 93, Pioneering Orthodontist." .
118. Norbert Rillieux, invention of the multiple-effect evaporator, Inventions-license.com. Accessed December 4, 2012.
119. Bellis, Mary. "Walter Sammons". Retrieved 27 May 2011.
120. "Townhall.com". Townhall.com. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
121. "Townhall.com". Townhall.com. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
122. Larry D. Nachman, "A Conflict of Visions, by Thomas Sowell", Commentary, March 1987
123. "Thomas Sowell". Jewishworldreview.com. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
124. NCTM past presidents, retrieved 2011-03-20.
125. Lewis Temple, Black Inventor Online Museum. Accessed December 6, 2012.
126. (1985) Pioneering Research in Surgical Shock and Cardiovascular Surgery: Vivien Thomas and His Work with Alfred Blalock, University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 9-13. ISBN 0-8122-7989-1.
127. "Almost a Miracle". Hopkinsmedicine.org. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
128. OAH Award Winners, OAH Erik Barnouw Award Winners
129. • Abramson, Charles I. (2009). "A study in inspiration: Charles Henry Turner (1867–1923) and the investigation of insect behavior". Annual Review of Entomology. United States. 54: 343–59. doi:10.1146/annurev.ento.54.110807.090502. ISSN 0066-4170. PMID 18817509.
130. "Symposium Awards". National Space Symposium. Retrieved October 25, 2010.
131. "Neil deGrasse Tyson". The Great Courses. Retrieved June 13, 2012.
132. Blum, Matt (August 5, 2011). "Cosmos Will Get a Sequel Hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson". Wired. Retrieved August 5, 2011.
133. James Glanz, Arthur Walker, 64, Scientist and Mentor, Dies, The New York Times (May 9, 2001).
134. Dawn Levy, Art Walker : 'favorite sun' of solar physics, Stanford Report (October 4, 2000).
135. Dawn Levy, Solar physicist Art Walker dies at 64; pioneer in X-ray optics, Stanford Report (May 2, 2001).
136. NCAR's Warren Washington elected chair of National Science Board May 10, 2002.
137. Warren M. Washington Collection, National Center for Atmospheric Research.
138. Warren Washington Receives National Science Medal, National Center for Atmospheric Research, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, October 15, 2010.
139. Warren M. Washington: Senior Scientist & Head of the Climate Change Research Section, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, The National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Academy of Sciences.
140. "James B. West of WSE receives Benjamin Franklin Medal : Johns Hopkins University – The Gazette". Gazette.jhu.edu. 2010-05-10. Retrieved 2012-03-09.
141. "Ian Moss: America's Diversity Can Provide Prosperity". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2012-03-09.
142. "Invent Now | Hall of Fame | Search | Inventor Profile". Invent.org. 1931-02-10. Retrieved 2012-03-09.
143. IEEE
144. University of Chicago news release
145. Zerbonia, Ralph G. (contrib. by Alic, Margaret) (2005) Contemporary Black Biography, Gale Research Inc, 2005, Vol.49 (Original from the University of Michigan), Digitized Sep 17, 2008, ISBN 0-7876-6731-5, ISBN 978-0-7876-6731-3, (biography viewable via Answers.com);
146. The Black Inventor On-Line Museum, "Daniel Hale Williams." Accessed December 7, 2012. http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/daniel-williams.html.
147. Cato Editors (2011-03-31). "Happy Birthday Walter Williams". Cato@Liberty.
148. Williams, Walter (August 25, 1997). "Capitalism and the Common Man". Retrieved March 20, 2013.
149. Williams, Walter. "The Pursuit of Happiness – Economics for the Citizen". The Freeman. Retrieved December 6, 2010.
150. Bellis, Mary. Granville T. Woods, 1856–1910.
151. Kwame Anthony Appiah, Henry Louis Gates – Africana: Civil Rights: An A-to-Z Reference of the Movement that Changed America
152. "Kenyon College". Northbysouth.kenyon.edu. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
153. Monday, Oct. 29, 1934 (1934-10-29). "Medicine: Negro Fellow. Time Magazine, 29th October 1934". Time.com. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
154. Merry Maisel & Laura Smart (1997). "Lifelong Struggle of a Zoologist". Women in Science: A selection of sixteen significant contributors. The San Diego Supercomputer Center.
155. Young, R.A. (1924). "On the Excretory Apparatus in Paramecium". Science. 60 (1550): 244. doi:10.1126/science.60.1550.244. JSTOR 1649643. PMID 17814573.

External links

• The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences
• The Black Inventor Online Museum
• LittleAfrica.com website