Black History Month: Debunking the 10 biggest myths about black history

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via Email
• Copy Link

  Link Copied

9. American innovation was exclusively white

Despite Pat Buchanan’s belief that “this has been a country built, basically, by white folks,” African-Americans have made invaluable contributions to this country through inventions, exploration, and all fields of endeavor.

As Randall Robinson noted in his book The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks, the U.S. government requested 100 slaves to construct the Capitol in Washington. Masters who agreed to lend their slaves to the government received $5 per month per slave. Subsequently, forced labor helped clear the land for the rest of the District of Columbia.

But black people helped build America in other ways as well. Benjamin Banneker, an African-American inventor, astronomer, mathematician, urban planner and farmer helped survey what would become the city of Washington, DC. Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful open heart surgery operation, while Dr. Charles Drew was a pioneer in blood banks and the storage and processing of blood plasma. George Washington Carver was a renowned scientist and educator who reportedly found hundreds of uses for peanuts, soybeans, pecans and sweet potatoes. Lewis Latimer worked with Thomas Edison, and invented carbon filaments for incandescent lamps. Garrett Morgan invented the traffic light and sold it to General Electric, with his design becoming the basis for modern traffic lights. He also invented the gas mask. Marie Van Brittan Brown invented the home security system. Black explorer Matthew Henson was the first person to reach the North Pole, and the list goes on and on.