[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 31 (Tuesday, February 28, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H969-H970]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       AFRICAN AMERICAN INVENTORS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Watt) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WATT. Mr. Speaker, one of the few important accomplishments of 
the 112th Congress thus far has been the passage of the America Invents 
Act, a comprehensive reform of the United States patent system which 
was signed into law by President Barack Obama on September 16, 2011. 
There's little disagreement that patent reform was long overdue, and 
even those who voted against the bill recognized how important it was 
to the American inventor and to American innovation to update and 
streamline the patent system.
  Our country has always respected and admired inventors. As young 
children, we were taught about famous inventors such as Thomas Edison, 
Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, and many others. Frequently 
overlooked in the discussion of important inventors, however, have been 
the accomplishments of African American inventors. Until this year's 
publication of the children's book, ``What Color is My World? The Lost 
History of African-American Inventors'' by basketball legend Kareem 
Abdul-Jabbar, we've done little to teach children about the outstanding 
contributions African American inventors have made to innovation.
  I therefore would like to use this time during Black History Month to 
pay tribute to some of the many, many contributions African American 
inventors have made. I'm not the first Member of this body to take to 
the floor of the House to acknowledge the long legacy of inventiveness 
in the African American community. On August 10, 1894, Representative 
George Washington Murray, the only African American in the House of 
Representatives at the time and himself the holder of eight patents on 
agricultural implements, read the names of 92 African Americans who 
held patents and described the inventions on the House floor.
  Had time allowed, Representative Murray would likely have highlighted 
the achievements of even more patent holders--inventors such as Thomas 
L. Jennings, a free person of color and one of the earliest African 
Americans to patent an invention, who in 1821 was awarded a patent for 
developing an early drycleaning process to remove dirt and grease from 
clothing. Or James Forten, another freeborn man who invented a 
contraption to handle the sails on a sailboat. Or Judy W. Reed, the 
first known woman of color to receive a patent, who created an improved 
dough kneader and roller. Or Henry Blair, an inventor who received 
utility patents on a seed and cotton planter.
  If Representative Murray had continued to be a Member of Congress, he 
would, no doubt, have come to the floor of the House many more times to 
brag about African American inventors and to acknowledge the major 
significance of their inventions. He would have reported that by the 
year 1900, African Americans had patented 357 inventions. And I'm 
certain that he would have been especially moved to share with this 
body that by the early to mid-20th century, African American inventors 
had obtained patents for innovations in countless industries, including 
medical, chemical, aviation, automotive, grocery, cosmetic, and 
apparel.
  For example, Garrett Morgan invented the gas mask to protect firemen 
and other rescuers from breathing smoke and poisonous gas when entering 
dangerous fires and other situations, and he was also awarded a patent 
for the three-way electric traffic signal. Charles Drew created a 
method to mass-produce blood plasma, which led to the formation of 
blood banks to store plasma for victims of life-threatening 
emergencies. Unfortunately, he bled to death following an automobile 
accident which occurred in my native State of North Carolina, and his 
injuries were too severe for the process he invented to be used to save 
his life.
  Frederick McKinley Jones was the first African American member of the 
American Society of Refrigeration Engineers. He developed a means to 
refrigerate perishables being transported long distances. Jack Johnson, 
who was best known as the great African American boxer, received two 
patents: one for an improvement to the monkey wrench and the other for 
a theft prevention device for vehicles. I suspect

[[Page H970]]

that my good friend and our colleague Representative Darrell Issa might 
be surprised to learn that Jack Johnson, an African American inventor, 
developed a device to prevent people from stealing cars long before 
Representative Issa got into the business.
  I encourage my colleagues to look at the books on African American 
invention.
  Mr. Speaker, one of the few important accomplishments of the 111th 
Congress thus far has been the passage of H.R. 1249, the ``America 
Invents Act,'' a comprehensive reform of the United States patent 
system which was signed into law by President Barack Obama on September 
16, 2011. H.R. 1249 authorized the transition from a first-to-invent 
process to a first-to-file process for obtaining a patent, expanded the 
prior user rights defense and addressed to some extent (although not to 
my satisfaction) the diversion of fees collected by the Patent and 
Trademark Office to the general fund. There is little disagreement that 
patent reform was long overdue and even those who voted against H.R. 
1249 recognized how important it was to the American inventor and to 
American innovation to update and streamline the patent system.
  Our country has always respected and admired inventors. As young 
children we were taught about famous inventors such as Thomas Edison, 
Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford and many others. Frequently 
overlooked in discussions of important inventors, however, have been 
the accomplishments of African-American inventors. Until this year's 
publication of the children's book, What Color is My World?: The Lost 
History of African American Inventors, by basketball legend Kareem 
Abdul-Jabbar, we've done little to teach children about the outstanding 
contributions African-American inventors have made to innovation. I 
would, therefore, like to use this time during Black History Month to 
pay tribute to some of the many, many contributions African-American 
inventors have made.
  I am not the first member of this body to take to the floor of this 
House to acknowledge the long legacy of inventiveness in the African-
American community. On August 10, 1894, Rep. George Washington Murray, 
the only African-American in the House of Representatives at that time 
and himself the holder of eight patents on agricultural implements, 
read the names of ninety-two African-Americans who held patents and 
described their inventions on the House floor. Had time allowed, Rep. 
Murray would likely have highlighted the achievements of even more 
patent holders, inventors such as: Thomas L. Jennings (1791 1859), a 
free person of color and one of the earliest African-Americans to 
patent an invention, who in 1821 was awarded a patent for developing an 
early dry-cleaning process to remove dirt and grease from clothing; 
James Forten, another free born man who invented a contraption to 
handle the sails on a sail boat; Judy W. Reed (the first known woman of 
color to receive a patent), who created an improved dough kneader and 
roller; and Henry Blair, an inventor who received utility patents on a 
seed and cotton planter.
  If Rep. Murray had continued to be a member of Congress he would no 
doubt have come to the floor of the House many more times to brag about 
African-American inventors and to acknowledge the major significance of 
their inventions. He would have reported that by the year 1900 African-
Americans had patented 357 inventions. And I am certain that he would 
have been especially moved to share with this body that by the early to 
mid-twentieth century, African-American inventors had obtained patents 
for innovations in countless industries, including medical, chemical, 
aviation, automotive, grocery, cosmetics and apparel. For example:
  Garrett Morgan (1877 1963) invented the gas mask to protect fireman 
and other rescuers from breathing smoke and poisonous gas when entering 
dangerous fires and other situations and he was also awarded a patent 
for the three-way electric traffic signal.
  Charles Drew (1904 1950) created a method to mass-produce blood 
plasma which led to the formation of blood banks to store plasma for 
victims of life-threatening emergencies. Unfortunately, he bled to 
death following an automobile accident which occurred in my native 
state of North Carolina and his injuries were too severe for the 
process he invented to be used to save his life.
  Frederick McKinley Jones (1893 1961) was the first African-American 
member of the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers. He developed 
a means to refrigerate perishables being transported long distances.
  Jack Johnson (1878 1946), best known as the great African-American 
boxer, received two patents, one for an improvement to the monkey 
wrench and the other for a theft-prevention device for vehicles. I 
suspect that my good friend and our colleague Rep. Darrell Issa might 
be surprised to learn that Jack Johnson, an African-American 
inventor, developed a device to prevent people from stealing cars long 
before Rep. Issa got into the business.

  Norbert Rillieux (1806 1894) invented a sugar processing evaporator 
that provided a safer, cheaper, and easier way of evaporating sugar 
cane juice and made the refinement of sugar more efficient. It is still 
used for the production of sugar, gelatin, condensed milk and glue, 
among other things.
  Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone (1869 1957) was the first African-
American beauty entrepreneur to manufacture a line of beauty products 
for African-American women. In the late 1800s and the early 1900s she 
manufactured and sold her products door-to-door. Mme. C.J. Walker, who 
is often credited with starting the African-American beauty business, 
was actually one of her sales agents.
  Dr. Lloyd Augustus Hall (1894 1971), a pioneer in the area of food 
chemistry, developed preservative chemicals that were used to keep food 
fresh without sacrificing flavor. In the 1930s he introduced ``flash-
dried'' salt crystals that revolutionized the meat packing industry.
  Percy Lavon Julian (1899 1975) developed synthetic cortisone, which 
provided cheaper relief from rheumatoid arthritis. In 1954 he founded 
Julian Laboratories to research steroids and in 1961 he sold his 
company to Smith, Kline and French.
  By the start of the 21st century and on into the present day, 
African-Americans have also been awarded patents in many other 
categories, including the technology and engineering fields. For 
instance:
  Dr. Mark Dean holds more than twenty domestic patents and was a key 
developer of computer architecture for IBM.
  Dr. George H. Simmons obtained a patent for creating a fiber-optic 
extension of an optic local area network and another for designing a 
system to eliminate the unwanted pulses in a dial pulse stream on 
telephones.
  Dr. James E. West is the well-regarded co-inventor of foil-electret 
transducers, which are the devices used to change sound into electrical 
signals and are used in items such as lapel microphones, hearing aids 
and portable tape recorders.
  Lonnie Johnson invented the popular ``Super Soaker'' water gun.
  I could go on ad infinitum about these and countless other examples 
of African-American ingenuity, but my time is limited. So I will 
instead encourage you to investigate for yourselves and learn more 
about the unique role that African-American inventors have played in 
the rich history of American inventiveness. For that purpose I direct 
you to an outstanding book called The Inventive Spirit of African 
Americans by Patricia Carter Sluby which details the many examples I 
have discussed, as well as many other outstanding innovations and 
patents by African-Americans. It is probably the most thorough and best 
researched and written history of African-American inventiveness 
available today. I also direct my colleagues to Kareem Abdul Jabbar's 
recent book written especially for children, entitled What Color is My 
World?: The Lost History of African-American Inventors. I commend these 
resources to my colleagues as we honor the exemplary achievements of 
African-Americans during Black History Month and throughout the year.

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