Black History Month: Amazing scientists and inventors

Black history month celebrates important people and events in African American history. It is celebrated every February because both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass were born in the month of February and both of these men were some of the main figures in ending slavery so February is the perfect month to celebrate black history.

Here is just sample of the amazing stories of inventors and scientists and what they accomplished.

Dr Daniel Hale Williams performed the first ever heart surgery in 1893 without the assistance of x-rays antibiotics or modern anesthesia. Dr dan was born in Pennsylvania and received his medical degree from Chicago medical school. in 1891 he founded provident hospital the first interracial hospital in Chicago on the city’s south side. The hospital established the first black nursing school. One fateful day two years later a young black man named James Cornish was brought to provident hospital with a serious wound on his chest. With his patient bleeding heavily Williams saw only one option he performed surgery on James chest fixing the severed artery and then closed the wound. James was discharged 51 days later fully recovered he lived another 20 years proving the success of Dr Dan’s operation.

George Washington carver was a botanist, agricultural, chemist and inventor. His innovation and determination helped to restore the struggling agricultural economy of the south during the early 20th century. Fascinated with nature from an early age he grew a secret flower garden in the woods near his foster home. He earned the nickname the plant doctor by the time he was 10 years old because of his skill in caring for sick plants. At 27 carver entered Iowa state college of agriculture and graduated as one of their outstanding scholars. He was appointed their greenhouse director and an assistant instructor in botany. He earned his master’s degree in 1896 and out of his long-held desire to help poor black southerners he accepted Booker t Washington’s offer to be the director of agriculture at Tuskegee institute. Southern cotton farmers were bringing in smaller harvests and thus less money. Carver examined the soil and found the cotton plants had taken important nutrients from the soil. He discovered that peanuts sweet potatoes ,soybeans and cow peas return nitrogen to the soil so he urged farmers to plant these in rotation with cotton. The crops helped feed the farmers families and allowed them to grow more cotton than before. When the farmers struggled to find customers for their peanut and sweet potato crops carver made more than 300 products from peanuts such as ink, shampoo, soap and candy and molasses glue and flour from sweet potatoes. Carver donated his life savings to Tuskegee to establish the George Washington carver foundation which helped provide research opportunities for students. A museum was also founded in his honor president franklin d Roosevelt ordered the dedication of the George Washington carver national monument located near the scientists childhood home in Missouri. It was the first national monument dedicated to an African American.

Celebrate Black History Month with Flippysox!