Inside Scoop. What Black History Month Means to Us. Month of February 2012 S T E M A C A D E M Y

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1 S T E M A C A D E M Y Inside Scoop Month of February 2012 Inside you will be amazed to learn about many famous African American scientists, inventors, and engineers that changed the course of history. The various essays filled with fun facts will also intrigue you. What Black History Month Means to Us

2 THE LOREM IPSUMS WINTER 2016 From Past to Present Garrett Morgan Garrett Morgan was one of those rare people who were able to come up with extraordinary inventions, which had great impacts on society. After wowing the world with one great invention, he d then follow that up with something else. Garrett Morgan was born on March 4, 1877 in Paris, Kentucky. He was the seventh of eleven children, born to Sydney and Elizabeth Morgan. At 14, he decided to move to Ohio to receive a better education. He moved to Cincinnati and then to Cleveland, working as a handyman in order to survive. In Cleveland, he learned the inner workings of the sewing machine and in 1907 opened his own sewing machine store, selling new machines and repairing old ones. In 1908 Morgan married Mary Anne Hassek with whom he had three sons. On July 25, 1916, Garrett Morgan made national news for using his gas mask to rescue 32 men trapped during an explosion in an underground tunnel, 250 feet beneath Lake Erie. After the rescue, his company received request from fire departments around the country, which wished to purchase the new gas masks. Oddly enough, since Garret lived during the days of the Jim Crow laws, people refused to buy the masks after they found out that a black man made it. They had rather die than use it, but during World War 1, when push came to shove, they had to turn to Garret for his Gas Masks. In 1920, Garrett Morgan moved into the newspaper business when he established the Cleveland Call. After a few years, he became a well-known businessman, and was able to earn enough money to purchase a home and an automobile. It was his time spent, observing the traffic on the roads in his automobile that inspired him to invent an improvement to the traffic signals. In conclusion, Garret Morgan was a key person in black history. Because of him, many new ideas were able to come around in order to better the world s safety. I chose him because I ve always wanted to know who invented the gas mask, and I found it very interesting when I found out that Garret Morgan was a black man. The most interesting thing that I found out when doing this essay was that people preferred death to using a black man s invention. This taught me that society has come a long way from where it use to be, and it made me more appreciative of my life now. By: Shani Williams 2

3 THE LOREM IPSUMS WINTER 2016 Jan Matzeliger was there, Matzeliger developed a liking for robotics and mechanics. At 19, he went to sea on an East Indian merchant ship. When the ship docked in Philadelphia, Matzeliger decided to live in the town. He worked at odd jobs including that of shoemaker's apprentice, and then moved to Boston in The following year, he moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, and a manufacturing center on the north shore of the Massachusetts Bay. Matzeliger watched the hand lasters in the Jan Matzeliger was a nineteenth-century inventor and machinist who revolutionized the shoemaking industry. Over a couple of years, he sacrificed everything for the sake of his invention. Jan Matzeliger created a machine known as a shoe-lasting machine, and he eventually became a stockholder in the company that manufactured it. As excellent a creation as Eli Whitney's cotton gin or Elias Howe's sewing machine, Matzeliger's shoe-lasting machine could produce 150 to 700 pairs of shoes a day--compared with 50 pairs of shoes per day by hand-lasting methods. Jan Ernst Matzeliger was born on the northern coast of South America in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana on September 15, He was the son of a Dutch engineer in charge of government machine shops and a Surinamese black woman, who was a slave. In 1855, Matzeliger went to live with his paternal aunt. At the age of ten, he was taught in the machine shops run by his father. While he shoe factory during the day. At night, with scraps he salvaged from the factory, he tried to re-do movements of the lasters. In private, Matzeliger made drawings. He tested a simple machine made of wire, wood, and cigar boxes. Matzeliger's employer offered $50 for the machine. Matzeliger rejected the offer. He then tried making a lasting machine out of scrap iron, a project that took him four years. Matzeliger got an offer of $1,500 for his iron laster. He again refused the offer and continued to perfect his lasting machine in a corner of the factory. He spent only five or six cents a day on food in order to conserve money for his experiments, and he sacrificed sleep. Matzeliger spent ten years in the development of his lasting machine and received little encouragement. When the secret of his project became known, in fact, the public laughed at him, but Matzeliger refused to be discouraged. 3

4 THE LOREM IPSUMS WINTER 2016 At a later date, Matzeliger found investors to help fund a patent, and explain the cost of demonstrating and perfecting the machine. Charles H. Delnow and Melville S. Nichols agreed to provide capital for Matzeliger's invention in return for two-thirds ownership of the device. With sufficient financial backing, Matzeliger applied for a patent. The first diagrams of the machine that Matzeliger sent to the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. were too difficult to solve. A representative from the patent office went to Lynn find out how it worked. On March 20, 1883 Matzeliger got a patent for the lasting machine, which could adjust a shoe, drive in the nails, and produce a finished product in one minute. Matzeliger continued to improve his machine until it was ready for an initial factory test. The first public operation of the machine took place on May 29, 1885, when the machine broke a record by lasting 75 pairs of shoes. 65 years later, after taking a foothold in his financial industry, Matzeliger s company made 65 billion dollars. In all, Matzeliger was a determined person who made true engineering prowess. Quick Facts 1. Jan Ernst Matzeliger was born on the northern coast of South America in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana (now the Republic of Suriname) on September 15, The following year, he moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, and a manufacturing center on the north shore of Massachusetts Bay. 3. He then tried making a lasting machine out of scrap iron, a project that took him four years. Matzeliger got an offer of $1,500 for his iron laster. He again refused the offer and continued to perfect his lasting machine in a corner of the factory. 4. On March 20, 1883 Matzeliger got a patent for the lasting machine, which could adjust a shoe, drive in the nails, and produce a finished product in one minute. By: Hakeem Marshall 4

5 THE LOREM IPSUMS WINTER 2016 Bernard Harris Bernard Harris was born on June 26, 1956 in Temple, Texas. He graduated from Sam Houston High School in 1974, received a B.S. degree in Biology from University of Houston in 1978 and then followed that up with a doctorate in 1982, from the University School of Medicine. Bernard Harris is significant to history and to the world, because he was the first African American to walk in space. Selected by NASA in 1990, Dr. Harris became an astronaut in July According to an online article, Later, Dr. Harris was the Payload Commander on ST3-63, the first flight of a new joint Russian-American Space Program. During this flight he logged 198 hours, 29 minutes in space, completed 129 orbits, and traveled over 2.9 million miles. By doing this he accomplished is childhood dream of walking in space, becoming the first African American to do so. In the year of his departure from NASA, Dr. Harris received a master s degree in biomedical science and then later served as Chief Executive and VP of Science and health services. In 1998, Dr. Harris became the VP of Business Development for Space Media Inc., establishing an international space education program for students, the Harris Foundation. Because of his many achievements, Dr. Bernard Harris received many honors and awards, including the 1996 Honorary Doctorate of Science from the Morehouse School of Medicine. He also received the Medal of Excellence, NASA Award of Merit 1996, NASA Equal Opportunity Medal 1996 and others. In conclusion, Dr. Bernard Harris is a very influential man with high standards, and through his examples and hard work, he proved that diligence is the key to success. I chose to write about him because I thought he was an interesting choice and I wanted to learn more about him and his achievements. Bernard and Michael Foale on space shuttle By: Shani Williams 5

6 MICHAEL JACKSON The King of Pop! By: Taylor Reed

7 Kenneth Chenault Kenneth Chenault was born June 2, 1951 in Mineola, N.Y. The son of a dentist and a dental hygienist, Chenault grew up on Long Island and attended the alternative Waldorf School, where he developed his first leadership skills as senior class president and as a captain of sports teams. He went to Harvard College in the early 1970 s and graduated in As a recent graduate of Harvard, Chenault had his choice of many employment opportunities and at first followed the expected path by joining the New York corporate law firm of Rogers & Wells. It was not long, however, before he was tempted by the theory and practice of business, and in the late 1970s Chenault accepted a position at the Boston-based business-consulting firm of Bain and Company. In these different careers he learned a great deal about business and how to firmly a company, in 1981, he was offered a job at American Express. He accepted the job working in New York. Chenault picked an excellent time to join Amex because they had made one of the most grandiose expansions they have ever made. The following year, at the age of 34, Chenault became the general manager of merchandise services and senior vicepresident of that division's corporate umbrella, American Express Travel-Related Services Company. As general manager, Chenault had two jobs: to sell goods in the best way possible to American Express members and maintain the high level of trust that members of Amex enjoyed. Amex tries its best to make members enjoy their membership. Chenault really exemplified on that by moving the range of merchandise further upscale and emphasizing the relationship of card- member to club. Under Chennault s leadership, the merchandise services division made sure its customers knew the uniqueness of American Express. With Chenault, carefully running the industry, sales went up from 20 to 25 percent annually during the mid-1980s, reaching approximately $400 million in Due to the prowess of his success, he was promoted to executive vice-president of the Platinum Card/Gold Card division of the Travel-Related Services Company. Chenault was also promoted to vice chairman in Two years later, he was named president and COO. When Golub stepped down in 200, Amex needed someone to take over. Kenneth was that man. He took over as CEO of Amex when Golub stepped down. Order to continue to stay in the top three, Am Ex began budget overhauls, provided on-line services, and continued to create new products, including Private Payments and the Black card. It also expanded financial services to its international cardholders. The company also restructured its four business lines. Overall, Chenault was a great man with a promising career ahead of him. By: Hakeem Marshall

8 Sylvester James Gates African Americans are making great advances in science. I would like to acknowledge an African American theoretical physicist. His name is Sylvester James Gates. His work on scientific theories has brought us closer to understanding the universe. I believe Sylvester James Gates will continue to strive in his studies and you ll see why. Sylvester James Gates enjoyed science and math as a child. He was born on December 15, 1950 in Tampa, Florida. Gates excelled in mathematics and science. His father often brought books home for him to read. Gates decided to do an extracurricular activity. As a ninth grader, Gates began playing chess and soon became an outstanding player. He went to an all-black school. His chess team never lost to an all-white high school. He took a course in physics in the 11 th grade and immediately knew that this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Since he thought he wouldn t get accepted in to any colleges, he didn t apply for any. However, Gates began to look for colleges after he graduated due to the encouragement of his father. He was accepted in to MIT and completed all of his schooling there. Gates earned bachelor degrees in math and physics. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in physics. Gates began to work on string theory and teach at universities. He creates and solves mathematical equations to try to explain the universe. Science is a field in which contributions are made every day. Sylvester James Gates is making some of those contributions. The most interesting fact I learned about Gates is that he earned many awards and post-doctoral fellowships. From my research about Sylvester James Gates, I learned By: Shaheed Bryant

9 Dr. Philip Emeagwali C r e a t e d t h e W o r l d s F a s t e s t C o m p u t e r Dr. Philip Emeagwali, who has been called the "Bill Gates of Africa," was born in Nigeria in Like many African schoolchildren, he dropped out of school at age 14 because his father could not continue paying Emeagwali's school fees. However, his father continued teaching him at home, and everyday Emeagwali performed mental exercises such as solving 100 math problems in one hour. His father taught him until Philip "knew more than he did." Growing up in a country torn by civil war, Emeagwali lived in a building crumbled by rocket shells. He believed his intellect was a way out of the line of fire. So he studied hard and eventually received a scholarship to Oregon State University when he was 17 where he obtained a BS in mathematics. He also earned three other degrees a Ph.D. in Scientific computing from the University of Michigan and two Masters degrees from George Washington University. The noted black inventor received acclaim based, at least in part, on his study of nature, specifically bees. Emeagwali saw an inherent efficiency in the way bees construct and work with honeycomb and determined computers that emulate this process could be the most efficient and powerful. In 1989, emulating the bees' honeycomb construction, Emeagwali used 65,000 processors to invent the world's fastest computer, which performs computations at 3.1 billion calculations per second. Dr. Philip Emeagwali's resume is loaded with many other such feats, including ways of making oil fields more productive which has resulted in the United States saving hundreds of millions of dollars each year. As one of the most famous African-American inventors of the 20th century, Dr. Emeagwali also has won the Gordon Bell Prize the Nobel Prize for computation. His computers are currently being used to forecast the weather and to predict the likelihood and effects of future global warming. By: Taylor Reed

10 Mae Jemison Mae Jemison once said, Never be limited by other people s limited imaginations If you adopt their attitudes, then the possibility won t exist because you ll have already shut it out You can hear other people s wisdom, but you ve got to re-evaluate the world for yourself. This is one of her most inspirational quotes. In this quote she is saying that you should not let what others say completely limit your own imagination because if you do then you too will have a limited imagination. She encourages us to re-evaluate the world for ourselves meaning for us to trust our own imagination and judgment. On October 17, 1956 Mae C. Jemison was born in Decatur, Alabama. She was the youngest child of Charlie Jemison and Dorothy (Green) Jemison. At the age of 3 the Jemison family moved to Chicago, Illinois in search for better educational pursuits. Mae was a very precocious child. She often spent most of her time in her school library reading multiple books about science especially astronomy. This is how she began to gain interest in the science field. Mae attended Morgan Park High School. In 1973, she graduated Morgan Park High School as an honor student. In addition to that, she received a National Achievement Scholarship to Stanford University. At Stanford, Mae pursued a double major and received a B.S. in chemical engineering and a B.A. in African and African-American Studies in Mae was the president of the Black Student Union. She was very involved in extracurricular activities such as dance and theater. After graduating Stanford in 1977, Jemison attended Cornell University Medical College in efforts to earn a medical degree. She had the amazing opportunity to study in Cuba, Kenya, and work at a refugee camp in Thailand. In 1981 she received a M.D. and became an intern at the University of Southern California Medical Center. Mae was also involved with the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and Liberia where she worked as a medical officer. Jemison returned to the United States in 1985 and she applied for NASA s astronaut training program. She was accepted among one of fifteen candidates who were chosen from about 2,000 people. Mae became the first African American woman ever admitted into the astronaut-training program on June 4, This was a remarkable accomplishment that changed not only Mae s life but history as well. She became an astronaut with the title of science mission specialist a year later. On September 12, 1992, Dr. Mae Jemison went into space with six other astronauts aboard the Endeavour on mission STS47. After leaving the astronaut corps in March 1993, Jemison accepted a teaching fellowship at Dartmouth. As of today, Dr. Mae Carol Jemison has received numerous awards and honors for her achievements. She was honored with the 1988 Essence Science and Technology Award, The Ebony Black Achievement Award in 1992, The Gamma Sigma Gamma Woman of the Year 1990 and many more awards. She even has a school named after her in Detroit, Michigan--- The Mae C. Jemison School. Mae continues to be a great role model for young girls today. In fact, she is one of my role models. During this project I learned a lot about Mae Jemison and her accomplishments. She kind of reminds me of myself, hardworking and determined. From this project I was able to truly realize the importance of education. Mae Jemison took her education very seriously and it has made her the person that she is today. I am inspired to follow in her footsteps. By: Angel Osagie-Erese

11 Patricia Bath Patricia Bath was born November 4, 1942, Harlem, New York. She is the daughter of Rupert and Gladys Bath. Growing up her parents always motivated her academically. When she was in high school she applied for and won a National Science Foundation Scholarship. This led to a research project at Yeshiva University and Harlem Hospital Center on cancer. From that day forward she was interested in medicine. Bath won the Merit Award of Mademoiselle magazine for her contribution to the project in Pat, short for Patricia graduated from high school early and in 1964 she received her Bachelors in chemistry from New York s Hunter College. She then moved to Washington DC, and attended Howard University College of Medicine and received her doctoral degree. During her years at Howard she became president of the Student National Medical Association and received fellowships from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Mental Health. Patricia went to Columbia University. She served her residency in ophthalmology at New York becoming the first African American to do this in her field. When she finally completed her education she was an assistant professor at Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA and at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science before she became the first woman on faculty at the Eye Institute. She co founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in Then in 1983 she was the head of a residency in her field at Charles R. Drew. In 1993 she retired from UCLA, and then went to serve as a professor of Ophthalmology at Howard University s School of Medicine. Also, she served as a professor of Telemedicine and Ophthalmology at St. Georges University. She co founded the King-Drew Medical Center. Patricia holds four patents in the United States. Then in 1981 she conceived a medical device, the Laserphaco Probe, used for ablating and removing cataract lenses. This was completed in 1986 after she researched lasers in Berlin and patented in 1988, becoming the first female doctor to receive a patent for medical purposes. In 2000 she was established a patent for a method she devised for using ultrasound technology to treat cataracts. I picked Patricia Bath because I didn t know what it was she did and I was interested in learning. Since she was an African American Woman and the history she made was science related I thought it would be a good idea to choose her. She has been honored by two of the universities that she attended. Hunter College placed her in its "hall of fame" in By: Nneka-Ann Ajaghanna

12 Madam C.J. Walker Sarah Breedlove who later would become known to the world as Madam CJ Walker-was born on December 23, The year had been a particularly difficult one for her parents, Owen and Minerva Anderson Breedlove, who struggled to farm the land as sharecroppers on the same Delta, Louisiana planation where they had been enslaved. They died due to the yellow fever epidemic. Sarah was their first child to be born into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. But the blessings soon turned to tragedy. Orphaned at seven, married at 14, widowed at 20 with a two-year-old daughter, it seemed that Sarah Breedlove McWilliams was destined to remain a poor, uneducated washerwoman. Her decision in 1888 to move to St. Louis where her brothers had become barbers would be the catalyst that forever transformed her life. As a member of St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, she was exposed to educated black woman who helped her begin to envision better life for herself and her child, Lelia. Around 1903, as scalp disease caused her to become nearly bald, she began experimenting with ointments, medicinal agents and shampoos to restore her hair. In 1905 she moved to Denver. After a few months of selling a line of products created by another black woman, she developed her own formulas. When she married, Charles Joseph Walker, she adopted the name Madam C. J. Walker.

13 By the time, Madam CJ Walker died in May 1919, at her Irvington, New York estate; she had become a millionaire and a pioneer of the modern hair care industry along with women like Helena Rubenstein, Elizabeth Arden and Annie Malone, her fieriest competitor. Equally as important, she provided employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for thousands of African American women who otherwise would have been maids, laundresses and sharecroppers. In 1917 Walker hosted a national convention of her sales agents in Philadelphia. She used her wealth and influence as a philanthropist, a patron of the arts and a political activist by supporting black colleges, commissioning the work of black artists and musicians, and pledging $5000 to the NAACP s anti-lynching campaign. Today Walker s family carries on her legacy through the Madam Walker/A Lelia Walker Family Archives, the world s largest private collection of Walker photographs, letters, business records, clothing, furniture and personal artifacts. The family also remains involved in the preservation of two National Historic Landmarks: the Madam Walker Theatre Center-a cultural arts venue in Indianapolis and Villa Leeward the Irvington-on- Hudson, New York mansion designed for Madam Walker by architect Vertner Tandy. Walker s daughter, who would come to be known as A Lelia was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Poet Langston Hughes called her joy goddess of Harlem s 1920s because of the fabulous parties and the cultural salon she hosted. One of Madam CJ Walker products A hair dryer By: Dominique Turnage

14 George Washington Carver George Washington Carver was born on January 5, 1864 at Diamond, Missouri. He was the son of Mary and Giles who were brought by their new master Moses Carver. Carver also had about 10 siblings, which had all died premature. As an infant George along with his sister and mother were kidnapped by raiders but where later rescued with the help of Moses Carver. Except that only George was recovered, there is no trace to what happened to his mother. After slavery had ended, Moses Carver and his wife treated George and his brother like their own children. They gave them the best education that they could muster and gave them all the opportunities that they could find. George as a young boy had an interest in plant live and was nicknamed The Plant Doctor. Even though George had a bright future he was not able to go to school in his own neighborhood. Schools back them were segregated and this made George go to school miles away from his adoptive parents. He traveled to southwest Missouri and worked as a farmer and studied at Newton County. He then enrolled at Minneapolis High School in Kansas. After finishing high school, it was a struggle to get accepted into a good college because of his race. He finally got accepted into Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa where he was the first black student. He studied art and piano because the school didn t offer any kind of science courses. George later went to Iowa Agriculture College to get a degree in science. He later gained a Bachelors Degree in Science and a Master s of science in botany and agriculture. Botany is the study of plants and their functions. After getting his degrees, George became the first African American faculty staff at the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanics. George then began his adventures in Tuskegee with Booker T. Washington in 1897.George worked in Washington s faculty in Washington Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes. He worked there until his last days in It was at Tuskegee that Carver developed his crop rotation that helped farmers in the south. He taught them how to use bad soil to create something richer in crops like soybeans, pecans, peas, and peanuts. George had the perfect timing for his invention to come out to the public because the states weren t doing very well. Southern farmers then adapted Carvers way of planting and got a great result. Besides from helping farmers, Carver also developed 500 different types of dye and in 1927 he invented a way to paint and stain soybeans. George Washington Carver died January Before his death, Carver was awarded many awards. He received The Spingarn Medal that was given every year by the National Association for the Advancements of Colored People. He was also awarded the Roosevelt Medal for his success in agriculture. The U.S president Franklin Roosevelt gave him his own national monument on July Even today we still remember the great achievements that he accomplished. Today we admire him for making By: Geidy Mendez

15 Tasha Inniss Tasha Inniss was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Tasha was an intelligent girl as a child and recognized her love for mathematics at an early age. As a fourth grader, Tasha saw math as a puzzle waiting for someone to put it together. In her eyes, all it needed was someone to find the right pieces. Although she realized her skill for math, it was not until college that Tasha decided that she wanted to be a math teacher. While an undergraduate at Xavier University of Louisiana, Tasha began to understand that anyone can learn math, and anyone can do math, but it takes someone special to teach math. She learned this while helping her friends and classmates with their course work in college. Everyone seemed to always tell her that she had a unique gift for presenting math concepts in a way that anyone could understand. At this point in her life, Tasha knew that she wanted to pursue a career in mathematics, but she still had many obstacles to overcome before reaching her goal. One of these obstacles is one that many people may be able to neither understand nor appreciate. As a young African-American woman, Tasha faced adversity in the shape of discrimination. At times, she felt that others did not want her to succeed, nor did they encourage her to try. Tasha succeeded anyway, however, and went on to earn her masters degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and her doctorate degree from the University of Maryland, where she again always felt that she had to prove that she was worthy of earning a Ph.D. in math. Every year, the numbers got bigger, more elusive. But she stuck with math, through her bachelor's degree, and then her master's. With the finishing touches on programs called "Stochastic Models for the Estimation of Airport Arrival Capacity Distributions", she made it to a PhD. But this doctorate was more than a personal milestone. Innis s, along with Sherry Scot Joseph and Kimberly Weems, became the first black women to receive PhDs in mathematics from the University of Maryland. Three at once, which is all the more striking considering that of the 1,119 math PhDs across the entire country last once only African American women received five. Numbers too small even for long division. In addition to her teaching, Dr. Innis is an affiliate member of the National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research and a visiting researcher for the Federal Aviation Administration. Dr. Innis is currently conducting research for NEXTOR, which is commissioned by the FAA. Part of her research deals with minimizing delay for aircraft landings at commercial airports during inclement weather. This project includes forming statistic-based models that are used to estimate airport capacities during undesirable weather. These models are then used to and find ways to maximize and increase the effectiveness of that capacity. When severe weather strikes, fog, low cloud cover, and thick precipitation causes the number of aircraft the airport can safely land to fall well below the number of aircraft that need to land. Dr. Inness s research and work with NEXTOR will help to alleviate this problem. Amazingly, Tasha Inniss still managed to find time to orchestrate and run a club for female students at Trinity who are interested in math, science, engineering, business, and many other fields. By: Liliana Reyes

16 Lewis Howard Latimer Lewis Howard Latimer was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts on September 4, 1848 as the youngest of the five children of Rebecca Smith and George Latimer. George Latimer had been the slave of James B. Gray of Virginia. George Latimer ran away to freedom in Trenton, New Jersey in October 1842, along with his wife Rebecca, who had been the slave of another man. When Gray, the owner, appeared in Boston to take them back to Virginia, it became a noted case in the movement for abolition of slavery, gaining the involvement of such abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison. Eventually funds were raised to pay Gray $400 for the freedom of George Latimer. Lewis Latimer joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 15 on September 16, 1863, and served as a Landsman on the USS Massasoit. After receiving an honorable discharge from the Navy on July 3, 1865, he gained employment as an office boy with a patent law firm, Crosby Halstead and Gould, with a $3.00 per week salary. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell employed Latimer, and then a draftsman at Bell's patent law firm, to draft the necessary drawings required to receive a patent for Bell's telephone. In 1879, he moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut with his brother, William, his mother, Rebecca, and his wife, Mary. Other family members, his brother George A. Latimer and his wife Jane, and his sister Margaret and her husband Augustus T. Hawley and their children, were already living there. Lewis was hired as assistant manager and draftsman for the U.S. Electric Lighting Company. He married Mary Wilson Lewis on November 15, 1873 in Fall River, Massachusetts. The couple had two daughters, Emma Jeanette, and Louise Rebecca. In 1874, he co-patented (with Charles W. Brown) an improved toilet system for railroad cars called the Water Closet for Railroad Cars (U.S. Patent 147,363). Latimer received a patent in January 1881 for the "Process of Manufacturing Carbons", an improved method for the production of carbon filaments used in light bulbs. Lewis Latimer had many interests. He was an inventor, draftsman, engineer, author, poet, musician, and, at the same time, a devoted family man and philanthropist. He married Mary Wilson on December 10, Lewis wrote a poem for his wedding entitled Ebon By: Nedjie Salomon

17 Meet the Writers Dominique Turnage Geidy Mendez Shani Williams Liliana Reyes Shaheed Bryant Hakeem Marshall Nneka Ann Ajaghanna Taylor Reed

18 Meet the Editors Angel Osagie-Erese Muhammed Waggeh MEET THE This is our wonderful teacher Mrs. Jones that made this whole magazine possible.

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