Recommended Books & Articles
Books Included in the Inquiry
All Aboard! Elijah McCoy’s Steam Engine by Monica Kulling (author) and Bill Slavin (illustrators), 2013
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Gary & the Great Inventors by Akura Marshall (author) and Adriel Meka (illustrator), 2018
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Lewis Latimer: A Brilliant Inventor by Janel Rodríguez (author) and Subi Bosa (illustrator), 2023
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Sweet Dreams, Sarah byVivian Kirkfield (author) and Chris Ewald (illustrator), 2019
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The Real McCoy: The Life of an African-American Inventor by Wendy Towle (author) and Wil Clay (illustrator), 1993
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The Unstoppable Garrett Morgan: Inventor, Entrepreneur, Hero by Joan DiCicco (author) and Ebony Glenn (illustrator), 2019
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VIP: Lewis Latimer: Engineering Wizards by Denise Lewis Patrick (author) Daniel Duncan (illustrator), 2021
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What Color is My World? The lost history of African American Inventors by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld (authors) and Ben Boos and A.G. Ford (illustrators), 2012
Note: This book includes information on Lewis Latimer and Garrett Morgan
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Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions by Chris Barton (author) and Don Tate (illustrator), 2016
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Other Books We Recommend for Students
African American Inventors: Lonnie Johnson, Frederick Mckinley Jones,, Marjorie Stewart Joyner, Elijah McCoy, and Garrett Augustus Morgan by Fred M.B. Amram, 1996
Note: This book has additional information regarding Lonnie Johnson, Elijah McCoy, and Garrett Morgan, and discusses a student, Marjorie Stewart Joyner, of one of Madam C.J. Walker’s schools.
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Bright Minds: Madam C.J. Walker: The Beauty Boss by Janel Rodríguez (author) and Subi Bosa (illustrator), 2023
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Saving the Day: Garrett Morgan's Life-Changing Invention of the Traffic Signal by Karyn Parsons (author) and R. Gregory Christie (illustrator), 2021
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Books We Recommend for Teachers
Black Investors in the Age of Segregation: Granville Woods, Lewis Latimer, and Shelby Davidson by Rayvon Fouché, 2005
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Black Pioneers of Science and Invention by Dr. Louis Haber, 1992
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Black, Brown, Bruised: How Racialized STEM Education Stifles Innovation by Ebony Omotola McGee, 2020
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Articles We Recommend for Teachers/Students
Johnson, S. (2017, February 16). With patents or without, Black inventors reshaped American industry. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/with-patents-or-without-black-inventors-reshaped-american-industry-180962201/
Sanford, E., III. (2019, February 28). History’s treatment of Black inventors has evolved. But it’s still imperfect. Undark Magazine. https://undark.org/2019/02/28/black-scientists-and-inventors/
Summary: Johnson argues that Black inventors, including enslaved and free African Americans, shaped U.S. industry despite being denied equal access to patent protection and legal recognition. The article shows how patent records alone understate Black innovation because many inventors were excluded, exploited, or forced to work through white intermediaries, while others contributed through patents, businesses, and later technological legacies.
Summary: Sanford argues that Black inventors and scientists have often been reduced to their inventions or contributions, a representational pattern that obscures their fuller lives, motivations, and historical contexts. The article traces how these representations have changed from Black History Month’s early efforts to combat racist claims of inferiority to later heroic and internet-list narratives, concluding that more humanizing histories can reveal the complexity of Black inventors beyond their technological achievements.