African American Scientists and Inventors
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
Bessie Blount was born on November 24th in 1914, in Hickory, Virginia. Little is known of her family or her childhood but it is known that she had long wanted to work in the medical field. Blount left home and traveled north to New Jersey to become a physical therapist. She studied at both Panzar College of Physical Education and at Union Junior College. Then she moved on to Chicago where she finished her training.
Then came World War II, and it had left many people severely disabled. It was while working with amputees that inventive ideas were cultivated to assist her patients in regaining their independence. By 1951 Blount was living in Newark, New Jersey and teaching Physical Therapy at the Bronx Hospital in New York. She taught people to do the work that their feet and hands once did. Eating was a great challenge for many of the people that she was working with. To assist disabled people in gaining greater independence she invented a device that delivered food through a tube, one bite at a time, to a mouthpiece that could be used whether the patient was sitting up or lying down. When the person wanted more food they just bit down on the tube and it signaled a machine to send the next morsel.
This electric self-feeding devise eventually was donated to France. In 1951, she patented a simpler device called a "portable receptacle support" which also allowed people to feed themselves. It used a brace around the neck to support a bowl, cup or dish. Blount also appeared on the Philadelphia television show “The Big Idea” in 1953. Becoming the first Black and the first woman to be given such recognition.
While her inventions had the potential to revolutionize the lives of many people, getting them patented and marketed for use by patients was not easy in the United States. Frustrated by the lack of interest by the American Veteran’s Administration, Blount signed the rights to her other inventions over to the French government with the statement that she had proven "that a Black woman can invent something for the benefit of humankind." Around this time she became a close friend of Theodore M. Edison the son of the Thomas Alva Edison the electric light inventor.....Read More
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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"Imagine at the age of 16 being sex-trafficked by a pimp named "cut-throat," the Instagram post featuring a picture of Brown from filmmaker Daniel Birman's 2011 documentary following her case reads. "After days of being repeatedly drugged and raped by different men, you were purchased by a 43-year-old child predator who took you to his home to use you for sex. You end up finding enough courage to fight back and shoot and kill him."
The post goes on to say that Brown was tried as an adult in Tennessee for killing 43-year-old Johnny Mitchell Allen after he solicited her for sex. She was found guilty of murder and prostitution and was sentenced to life in prison. Brown is not eligible for parole until she turns 69.
In the documentary and more recently this past Thursday, Birman revealed insights into Brown's life — how she suffered physical, sexual and verbal abuse for years.
"We started the conversation (with Brown being) a young girl who's at the tail end of three generations of violence against women," he told Tennessee's Fox17 Nashville. "She had no chance."
During her trial in 2004, Brown testified that she was choked, beaten and raped frequently in her home and threatened at gunpoint. Her lawyers tried to argue that this kind of environment and the trauma she suffered as a child is what led her to shoot Allen after he paid her for sex.
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It’s #blackgirlmagic time (psych, it’s always #blackgirlmagic time), and today, we are celebrating Ilia Calderón who on Nov. 8 became the first Afro-Latina to anchor a news desk at a major network in the United States, when she replaced María Elena Salinas on Noticiero Univision.
“It’s a great responsibility knowing that I’m opening doors for other generations, not only for journalists, but for other girls and women who want to succeed at what they do,” Calderón told People Chica of her new role alongside veteran journalist Jorge Ramos. “My commitment is not only to the Afro-Hispanic community, but to the Hispanic community in general.”
As People Chica notes, the 45-year-old, Emmy-winning anchor, is quite familiar with overcoming obstacles. She was raised in El Chocó, one of the poorest regions in Colombia, but had a loving mother who taught her that she was capable of anything.
“She was very proud to know that all the values she taught me are now bearing fruit, not only in me but in my sisters as well,” the anchor said, noting that her new position with Univision (parent company of The Root) is “a triumph for the entire family.”
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The fate of Robert Mugabe, who ran Zimbabwe with iron discipline for more than 30 years, will send a chill down the spines of other autocratic African leaders who may have out-stayed their welcome.
General Constantino Chiwenga, the armed forces chief, kicked away the military prop supporting Mugabe’s presidency last week. Mass protests in Harare, Bulawayo and other cities showed the president had lost popular support. On Tuesday, Mugabe’s party comrades began the process of impeaching him, leading finally to his long overdue resignation.
Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s president, is one leader with reason to feel uneasy. Like Mugabe, he came to power on the back of a guerrilla struggle. Museveni has stubbornly clung to office since 1986, abolishing presidential term limits, emasculating the political opposition, and curbing media freedoms. He “won” a fifth, consecutive term last year amid widespread, credible claims of voter fraud and intimidation.
In a country of nearly 40 million people, where the average age is 15, most people were not born when Museveni first took office. At 73, he is 20 years younger than Mugabe. But his kindred liberation-era outlook, and, for example, his Mugabe-ish record of homophobia, appears anachronistic to younger generations of the Facebook age.
Speaking recently to mark 31 years in power Museveni showed disdain for modern notions of democratic accountability. According to the Zambian Observer, he told his audience: “I hear some people saying that I’m their servant. I’m not a servant of anybody. I am a freedom fighter. I am fighting for myself and for my beliefs.”
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IN MANY ways the story of Africa in the 21st century is one of success. Great strides have been made tackling diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. A baby born in Africa today is less likely to die young, and more likely to go to school than one born in 2000. Life expectancy at birth increased by nearly ten years, to 60, between 2000 and 2015. But many Africans also feel less secure than they did a decade ago. Civil wars and social unrest have proliferated, according to an index of how Africa’s leaders are performing.
Civil wars in several countries, such as Libya, South Sudan and the Central African Republic, drag down the numbers. At the other end of the spectrum, improvements in health, education and social services were led by Rwanda, Ethiopia and Togo. In 28 countries development indicators improved, while security indicators deteriorated.
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group of Nigerian athletes have a lot to celebrate. Not only are they on par to become the first women’s bobsled team from the continent to compete at the Winter Olympics, but the first bobsled team from the entire continent of Africa period, to compete.
According to The Washington Post, the women are posed to make history just by being a part of the games, no matter the medal won.
“This is a huge milestone for sports in Nigeria,” Nigerian bobsled team member Seun Adigun told KweséESPN on Friday. Nothing makes me prouder than to know that I can play a small role in creating opportunities for winter sports to take place in Nigeria. Our objective now is to be the best representation of Africa that the Winter Olympics have ever witnessed.”
Adigun ran for Nigeria in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, so she’s no stranger to the demands of top-tier athletic performance. But this will be the professional competitor’s first time making history.
She will be joined by Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga as she competes in this year’s Winter Olympics.
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