Black History Month 2025
Since 1976, Black History Month has been a chance to recognize the contributions of African Americans. From Angela Davis to Zora Neale Hurston, the list of influential African Americans grows every day. Today, we'd like to highlight a few lesser-known figures from African American history!
Carter G. Woodson is the father of Black History Month

Born in the winter of 1875, Carter Godwin Woodson graduated high school in two years and earned a PhD in history in 1912 from Harvard University. At the time, he was one of only two African Americans to earn a PhD from Harvard.
By the early 1900s, Woodson, who was working in academia, realized that the American public was taught exceedingly little about African American history and contributions. It was this realization that would go on to inform Woodson's view on how society perceived African Americans. It inspired him to co-found the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, also known as ASALH. The organization went on to champion the creation of Black History Week in 1926.
Although Carter G. Woodson passed away in 1950, a full 26 years before Black History Month was created, his contributions to American history, specifically Black History Week, paved the path for Black History Month.
It's for these reasons and more that he's considered the Father of Black History Month.
African American Surgeon, Charles R. Drew Helped Change the Tide of WW2

Charles Richard Drew was born in 1904 to a middle-class family. By 1933, he was attending McGill's Medical School in Canada. It was at McGill's that Charles was introduced to the concept that would define his contribution to history: blood banks.
While Drew is often credited as the "Father of the Blood Bank," the truth behind that title is shaky at best. At the time, a scientist named Bernard Fantus was working on the same idea and, by 1937, opened the first blood bank. Doctors outside of America were also close to completing their own versions of blood banks.
However, the reason Drew received the title is because of how he revolutionized the idea. For starters, Charles R. Drew fought against blood segregation. Many health practitioners believed that African American blood could not and should not be used to save people of Caucasian heritage. This was an especially harmful ideology as the Second World War was taking place at the time.
A common cause of fatal injury in WW2 was shock. Shock occurs when the body loses enough blood that it begins shutting down. The clear solution was blood transfusion, but with the public ideology at the time and a lack of technical advances that made storing and transporting blood easy, Drew's work was cut out for him.
By the early 1940s, Drew discovered that plasma could be stored separately from blood and that, in doing so, blood could be transported farther and last longer. This discovery, attributed solely to Charles R. Drew, in combination with his advancement in blood transfusion techniques, earned him the spot of Director of the first American Red Cross Blood Bank.
Benjamin Banneker Had a Knack for Calculating the Stars

Benjamin Banneker, born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1731, was, among other things, a mathematician and astronomer. His first brush with popularity occurred in 1752 when he built a clock made entirely of wood. This is noteworthy for two reasons; first, he built the clock by borrowing a friend's pocket watch and then building an identical mechanism. And the other reason it's notable is because it's believed to be the first clock made in America and because it was made from American parts—Banneker sourced the wood from local trees. At the time, being a clockmaker took years of rigorous training and schooling. In comparison, Banneker was exclusively self-taught at the time. Banneker's clock went on to keep accurate time for approximately fifty years.
While the clock garnered public acclaim, it isn't the only reason he's in the history books.
In 1789, Benjamin began using tools to chart solar eclipses and other major celestial events. Please note, in this context, celestial is anything that has to do with the stars, planets, etc. Benjamin Banneker proved to be truly talented at mathematically predicting celestial events, his predictions were far more accurate than those of his contemporaries. He went on to create the first almanac to be produced in and focused on America. In fact, he sent an early draft of the almanac to then-President Thomas Jefferson, who applauded his work.
A few of the biggest reasons an accurate almanac was a game changer for life in the 17-1800s is because of the positive impact it had on farming, sailing, and essentially any industry that was at the whim of Mother Nature. Banneker's almanacs not only revealed crucial information, they also changed how astronomers would plot stars. And, more importantly, his intelligence challenged the public perception of what people of African descent were capable of.
We Have Shirley Ann Jackson to Thank for Fiber Optics.

Shirley Ann Jackson, who is not related to the famous and similarly named writer, was born in 1946. After graduating high school, Jackson earned her degree in theoretical physics from MIT and her doctorate in nuclear physics from MIT. She was the first African American woman to earn a PhD from MIT.
Once she earned her doctorate, Jackson began work at Bell Laboratories in the 1970s. It was there that she worked on projectors that would one day lead to the creation of solar cells, the fax machine, and fiber optic cables. For fiber optics, Jackson conducted years of research on the properties and materials behind transmitting light. This research included theoretical modeling of light waves, which is credited as directly advancing the development of fiber optics.
In addition to her work at Bell, Jackson made major contributions to the fields of physics, quantum mechanics, condensed matter, and more.
Shirley Jackson's work would go on to earn her a National Medical of Science award in 2014.
Garrett Morgan's Underrated Inventions Saved Lives

Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr. was born in Kentucky in 1877. The future inventor has humble origins, being born the seventh of nine children, all of whom worked on the family farm. Morgan dropped out of school at 14 and left Kentucky in search of work. By 1895, in Ohio, he created a belt fastener that made his work as a machine repairman easier and safer. This was the first time Morgan would bring his own designs to life.
It was almost twenty years later, in 1916, that one of Morgan's inventions gained national attention. And that invention was the breathing mask, a precursor to the gas mask. In 1916, at Lake Erie, a team of construction workers became trapped underground, surrounded by toxic fumes and running out of breathable air; Morgan arrived on the scene with his breathing mask and, in turn, saved many lives that day.
But Morgans's most underrated invention, and the biggest reason he's on this list, isn't the belt fastener, gas mask, or his lesser-known brand of hair cream. Instead, it's the traffic light. Having witnessed many avoidable car accidents since the invention of the automobile, Morgan set out to find a way to make driving safer. Before Morgan, there were street light operators who manually switched the lights from "stop" to "go" and back again. However, there was no warning light (I.E., a yellow light). Imagine being part way through an intersection when your green light suddenly turns red. Because of these reasons, automobile crashes were practically a part of everyday life. Morgan invented the traffic light to reduce these accidents. His invention included an early warning system to let drivers know they were about to come to a stop, was battery powered, and offered more options to better control and communicate with traffic.
Morgan received a patent for his invention in the US, Great Britain, and Canada. Think of Garrett Augustus Morgan the next time you hit nothing but green lights on the way home.
Bonus Fact: Lonnie Johnson's Invention Transformed Your Childhood!

Here's a quick bonus fact for you involving Lonnie Johnson!
Lonnie Johnson, born 1949, is a literal rocket scientist who has worked for the US Air Force and NASA. Born in Alabama, Johnson has as humble a beginning as any other entry on this list. And like a lot of lifelong inventors, he spent his childhood taking things apart to learn how they work. However, it isn't just Johnson's work in nuclear and mechanical engineering and jet propulsion that secured his place in American history.
It's the Super Soaker that earned him his spot. The popular toy water gun was invented by Johnson during his time working with the Air Force. And it's from his Super Soaker design that he also invented and patented the Nerf gun! Turns out, it takes a rocket scientist to discover how to make summertime even more fun!
In Honor of Black History Month
African American history has countless, untold examples of inventors, politicians, artists, scientists, and more who've contributed to their communities in invaluable ways. As a community organization, we're happy to have a chance to highlight at least a few in honor of Black History Month.