These are the world's most successful Americans of color that was kept hidden as a result of the primitive nature of bigotry until the Internet and technology came along to let the entire world know the value of what Americans of color accomplished to the benefit of American society and the entire world. If one wants to know why, here are the reasons why:
List of African-American inventors and scientists
This list of African Americans inventors and scientists documents many of the African-Americans who have invented a multitude of items or made discoveries in the course of their lives. These have ranged from practical everyday devices to applications and scientific discoveries in diverse fields, including physics, biology, math, and medicine.
African-Americans have been the victims of oppression, discrimination and persecution throughout American history, with an impact on African-American innovation. A 2014 study by economist Lisa D. Cook linked violence towards African-Americans and lack of legal protections over the period 1870–1940 to lower innovation.[1] Despite this, many black innovators have been responsible for a large number of major inventions.
Among the earliest was George Washington Carver, whose reputation was based on his research into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, which aided in nutrition for farm families. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of other products to improve their way of life. The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes using peanuts.[2] He also developed and promoted about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm. He received numerous honors for his work, including the Spingarn Medal of the NAACP.
A later renowned scientist was Percy Lavon Julian, a research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine, and a pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of the human hormones, steroids, progesterone, and testosterone, from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol. His work would lay the foundation for the steroid drug industry's production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills.[3]
A contemporary example of a modern-day inventor is Lonnie George Johnson, an engineer. Johnson invented the Super Soaker water gun, which was the top-selling toy in the United States from 1991 to 1992. In 1980 Johnson formed his own law firm and licensed the Super Soaker water gun to Larami Corporation. Two years later, the Super Soaker generated over $200 million in retail sales and became the best selling toy in America. Larami Corporation was eventually purchased by Hasbro, the second largest toy manufacturer in the world. Over the years, Super Soaker sales have totaled close to one billion dollars. Johnson reinvested a majority of his earnings from the Super Soaker into research and development for his energy technology companies – "It's who I am, it's what I do."[4] As of 2019, Johnson holds over 120 patents, with more pending, and is the author of several publications on spacecraft power systems."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_inventors_and_scientists
'Hidden Figures': How Black Women Did The Math That Put Men On The Moon
Many Americans are familiar with the astronaut heroes of the 20th century space race — names like Gus Grissom and Neil Armstrong. But who did the calculations that would successfully land these men on the moon?
The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
by Margot Lee Shetterly
Several of the NASA researchers who made space flight possible were women. Among them were black women who played critical roles in the aeronautics industry even as Jim Crow was alive and well.
"When the first five black women took their seat in the office in 1943, it was in a segregated office with a 'colored girls' bathroom and a table for the 'colored' computers," author Margot Lee Shetterly tells NPR's Michel Martin.
Shetterly, a Hampton, Va., native and daughter of a former Langley scientist, tells the story of these women in the new book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race. The book has already been adapted for the big screen; the film starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae premieres in January.
https://www.npr.org/2016/09/25/4951...k-women-did-the-math-that-put-men-on-the-moon
Christine Darden, one of the mathematicians featured in the book “Hidden Figures,” had been working as a “computress” for five years when she worked up the courage to ask her supervisor in 1972 why only men were allowed to be NASA engineers. To her surprise, she was soon promoted.(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-col1-women-apollo-20190716-story.html