A History of Black Innovation

It goes without saying that the perception of black people within America has been incredibly adverse. Dehumanizing stereotypes about being innately prone to violence, aggressive, loud, consistently seeking white approval, and assumptions of stupidity. These stereotypes provide a sort of hindrance to black people existing in academic spaces, often resulting in a lack of educational and economic opportunities, and lack of recognition for black people who have made large contributions to American society and revolutionized life for Americans on a wide scale. To this day, black women’s contributions to society have sometimes not been talked about. Inventors like Marie van Brittan Brown with her invention of the first home-security system, Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner and her creation of the sanitary belt which set the scene for modern day sanitary pads, and Marian Crook, who is. These women are extraordinary, and deserve to be celebrated for their amazing work.

Marie van Brittan Brown was born in 1922 in Jamaica, Queens, New York. She was a nurse, and her husband, Albert Brown, an electronics technician. The idea for her invention was first sparked out of consideration of the high crime rate within her neighborhood and concern for her safety because of this. She invented the first home-security system in 1966 with her husband, and the security system consisted of “four peepholes, a sliding camera, television monitors, and two-way microphones.” In 1966, she and her husband applied for a patent to officially be recognized for their work. Marie died in 1999, but her work that has revolutionized and influenced modern usage of home security systems will never be forgotten.

Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner was born on May 7th, 1912 in Monroe, North Carolina. Innovation was common in her family, as her sister, Mildred Davidson Austin Smith, was the inventor of a board game called “Family Treedition,” and her father and maternal grandfather, Sidney Nathaniel Davidson and Robert Phromeberger, were inventors as well. Mary went on to

officially patent her invention of the sanitary belt in 1957. Apart from her career as an inventor, she married James “Jabbo” Kenner in 1951, and they were foster parents to five children. Mary died in 2006, in Washington, D.C at the age of 93, and despite not receiving any official awards for her work and inventions, Kenner’s invention has paved the way for modern creations of sanitary products.

Lastly, Marian Croak, born on May 14th, 1955 and with other 200 patents to her name, is a brilliant engineer whose innovations in the computer science world has resulted in advancements in technology that are vital to everyday life. Her technology, Voice over Internet Protocol is what makes companies like Zoom and other telecommunications possible. This technology also made text-voting on American Idol possible, and more notably, allowed for 43 million dollars to be raised in text-donations for Haiti. Croak first got her undergraduate degree at Princeton University, and later went to University of Southern California for her doctorate. She now works at Google in their engineering department, and previously worked at AT&T up until 2014. Croak is also an advocate for women and girls in STEM fields, and an advocate against racial injustice at Google.

All of the black women mentioned have left their mark on history, and have defied long perpetuated stereotypes about the falsely believed limitations of black people and their existence in academically prestigious fields and spaces. Marie van Brittan Brown, Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner, and Marian Croak all deserve to be recognized and celebrated for their excellence, and for their revolutionary work that continues and will continue to influence our society and our everyday lives. When utilizing their inventions, it is of the utmost importance to understand where they come from, and to racially contextualize the experiences of these women and their fight to be recognized and seen and to have influence.

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