Beards & Fades Barbershop

Marjorie Stewart Joyner invented a permanent wave machine and was a leading figure in the beauty industry as a beautician, salon owner, instructor and executive for the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Co.

Jerry Lawson: The Father of the Video Game Cartridge

Jerry Lawson was a groundbreaking engineer who revolutionized the early days of video gaming in the 1970s. As massive arcade machines dominated game play, he created the first home console with interchangeable cartridges, changing how games were played forever. Before his innovation, games were hardwired into consoles, but Lawson’s idea paved the way for systems like the Atari 2600 and beyond.
As one of the few Black engineers in Silicon Valley at the time, Lawson broke barriers and inspired future generations. His work didn’t stop at hardware—he later founded VideoSoft, one of the first companies to develop software for gaming.
Lawson’s legacy is now celebrated as a cornerstone of modern gaming. Every time you swap or download a game, you’re building on his innovation.

Richard B. Spikes, an African American
inventor, is credited with inventing the horizontal swinging barber chair in the early 20th century. He received a patent for this innovation in 1910. His design improved the functionality of barber chairs by allowing them to move horizontally, making it easier for barbers to adjust clients positions without excessive effort.
Spikes was a prolific inventor, also known for contributions to the automatic gear shift, beer tap, and turn signals for automobiles. His work played a significant role in various industries, but like many Black inventors of his time, he often didn’t receive the widespread recognition he deserved.

Bass Reeves was a US Deputy Marshal and a legendary lawman in the Indian Territory. Born into slavery in Arkansas, he became one of the first Black lawmen west of the Mississippi River. Over 32 years, he arrested over 3,000 criminals and killed 14 outlaws, earning a reputation for ruthlessness and catching outlaws other deputies couldn’t. Reeves was also a farmer, scout, tracker, and railroad agent.

So many of us know George Washington Carver as the man famous for giving us peanut butter (bless him), but he’s responsible for much more. As an agricultural chemist, in an effort to increase the profitability of sweet potatoes and peanuts (which thrived in the South as opposed to dwindling cotton supply), Carver began conducting experiments in 1896 and created 518 new products from the crops. They include ink, dye, soap, cosmetics, flour, vinegar, and synthetic rubber. He publicly revealed his experiments in 1914.

A prolific inventor who called himself the “Black Edison,” Garrett Morgan created early versions of the traffic light and gas mask. He began his career as a sewing-machine mechanic before patenting an improved sewing machine design and a hair-straightening product, among other inventions. His breathing device, known as a safety hood, later provided the blueprint for World War I gas masks. In 1923, Morgan invented a safer traffic light. The notable Black inventor, who lived much of his life in Ohio, died in July 1963 at age 86.

In 1875, Oliver Lewis became the first jockey to win the Kentucky Derby, America’’s longest continuous sporting event. Lewis was born in 1856 in Fayette Country, Kentucky, to his parents Goodson and Eleanor Lewis. Lewis was born free, but there is little known about his parents or family. Lewis was only 19 years old when he entered the first Kentucky Derby. The race was held at what was then the Louisville Jockey Club on May 17, 1875, but is now known as Churchill Downs. Ten thousand spectators watched this first race. Lewis rode a horse named Aristide, which was one of two colts entered by their owner, H. Price McGrath of Jessamine, Kentucky. The other horse, Chesapeake, was ridden by William Henry. Although the same owner entered both horses, Chesapeake was favored to win the $2,850 purse, and Lewis was told that his job was to lead most of the race to tire out the other horses. Out of the fifteen jockeys in the field, at this first Kentucky Derby, thirteen of them were African American. Aristide’’s trainer, Ansel Williamson, was also an African American.Oliver Lewis followed his instructions and was pushing most of the field while trailing a horse named Volcano for most of the race. However, in the last stretch, Chesapeake was unexpectedly far back in the pack, while Aristide and Volcano were running neck and neck for first place. Lewis and Aristide pulled away near the finish line and won the race by two lengths. With that victory, Lewis became the first jockey to win the Kentucky Derby. Later that season, Lewis came in second in the Belmont Stakes in New York and won three more races at the Louisville Jockey Club, riding Aristide in all of them. He would never ride in the Kentucky Derby again, however, and would retire after that racing season for unknown reasons.After retiring, Lewis worked for a short time as a day laborer, but then began providing handicapping tables and racing forms to bookies. He later became a bookie himself, which was legal in Kentucky at that time. Lewis married, although his wife’’s name is unknown. The couple had six children, including James, who inherited his lucrative bookmaking business. Oliver Lewis died in 1924.

BlackHistoryMonth 😎✊🏿✊🏽✊✊🏾

Matthew Cherry, an African American inventor, patented a device that was called a velocipede. Cherry’s patent was a forerunner of what we know as the tricycle. .

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