It sometimes seems as if the historical figures in the U.S. were all parliamentarians, farmers, scientists, military officers, statesmen, and inventors all at once (with life expectancies of 54-56 years old, to boot). There’s a reason for this: Most of the people who were able to take up all these vocations were able to do so because they had homes and fields full of forced laborers so they could pursue all these passions and projects (like founding a country, for example). The practice and pursuit of science was largely unattainable to people of color in the U.S. for many years, but when barriers and systemic obstacles were reduced, the natural talent and innovation of our communities quickly showed itself. Today we show gratitude to inventors and innovators, some of whom have been under-acknowledged for their large impacts.

Let’s begin with George Speck, the man who gave us one of the greatest gifts of all time: the potato chip. You see, George is credited with having invented the potato chip by accident in the summer of 1853 when a potato slice fell into a hot frying pan. He began selling this creation and became known as George Crum. Crum’s chips were a local delicacy in New York until the 1920s, when a salesman named Herman Lay (yes, as in Lay’s) began traveling throughout the South and introducing potato chips to different communities.

Next, let’s fast-forward a few decades to the work of Mark Dean. Mark Dean is a computer scientist and engineer whose work is probably the reason you’re reading this e-mail right now: Mark is a co-inventor of IBM’s original personal computer, the PC color monitor, the Industry Standard Architecture system bus, and the first gigahertz chip. He changed the face of technology with his inventions and holds 3 of IBM’s original 9 patents. He also co-created the technology that enables printers, keyboards, disk drives, and monitors to be plugged directly into computers.

To pair perfectly with Mark’s contributions to personal computing, we turn our attention to Lisa Gelobter, a computer scientist who assisted with the 1995 creation of Shockwave, which is an essential technology that led to the development of web animation (so we have her to thank for .gifs). She is also the CEO and co-founder of tEQuitable, using technology to make workplaces more equitable. She was named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People and is one of the first 40 Black women to have ever raised over $1M in venture capital funding.

Last, we will take you back into time to learn the story of Nearest Green, who had a particular recipe that became incredibly famous… under someone else’s name. You see, Nearest Green was the first known African-American master distiller, and the person who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey. At the time, distillers often held people in slavery and benefitted from their forced labor to make their valuable product. Enslaved people with distilling skills sold for higher prices at slave auctions, and it was common for them to have been brought from sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean where they used molasses to create rum. Nearest Green was an enslaved person who went unrecognized for his work for many years, but today there is a whiskey company named after him. This company made a short video that discusses Green’s story, narrated by the Emmy-award winning actor Jeffrey Wright. It’s a great video and we are pleased to share it here with the note that this is not an endorsement of any product or company. See the video here: The Story of Nearest Green

Since Lisa was instrumental in the creation of the .gif, we are featuring the photos of today’s four inventors in .gif format.

VT Professionals of Color Network

Communities of color are bursting with talent, and you don’t have to dig through the history books to find it. Check out the VT Professionals of Color Network (known affectionately as “VTPOC”) for a directory of business owners of color in Vermont—these are community anchors you can support not just in February, but all year long!

Pop Quiz!

A one-question trivia check to make sure you’re on your Black History A-game. How many will you get correct throughout the month? Click the button that reads “Today’s pop quiz” to see today’s question.

Coming up

Check out some of the events happening throughout Black History Month 2023.