By Cherranda Smith
Feb 23, 2021
Innovation has been embedded in the very DNA of Black people everywhere for centuries. From making light shine, creating more efficient processes, and a variety of gadgets that have revolutionized how we live life, Black people have forged many inventions using the fortitude found throughout our history.
Often in our past, the deficit of representation, ongoing oppression, and sheer genius has conjured inspiration to make things that had not previously existed. There has also been times when our creations have gone uncredited, or without proper recognition.
Recently, the patent system in the US started tackling the striking underrepresentation of Black inventors in patent ownership. The racist roots of the system stem back to the 1850s when slave owners could receive patent ownerships on behalf of the enslaved person who actually made the invention, building a pipeline of erasure. The racist practices of the system continued well into the 1900s when Jim Crow-era laws prevented Black inventors from obtaining patents from all-white attorneys’ offices.