OMAHA PERFORMING ARTS

Imagine you are driving, approaching a busy intersection. The light is green and abruptly turns red.

Crime rates are spiking in your neighborhood. You are home alone and someone is knocking at your door but you have no way of knowing who is there.

You are at your local grocery store, crossing items off your list, except there are only dry goods. The chilled section has disappeared. Could you still make your favorite meal?

You are working from home on a screen with no color, no flexibility in movement, and everything you are doing is taking hours to load.

You got a new job at a train station and you need to let train #1 know that train #2 is heading its way. Your line of communication is out of reach; what do you do now?

Imagine that you would like to give blood to help save lives. There is no effective way to preserve your blood. What good will this be?

Thanks to the genius of Black inventors, the scenarios above are problems already solved.

Black history surrounds us. It is present in our every day lives in ways that many of us overlook and under-appreciate. In February, we pause to observe the significance of Black history.

1923
Garrett Morgan improved the traffic light by adding a “yield” component that we all know as the yellow light.

1966
Marie Van Brittan Brown designed the first home security system using a camera, a monitor, microphone and buttons to arm the door and call the police. 

1940
Frederick McKinley Jones invented a roof-mounted cooling system used to refrigerate goods on trucks during extended transportation.

1980 and 1999
Mark Dean worked as Chief Engineer at IBM, developing the first IBM PC, the color monitor and first gigahertz processor.

1887
Granville T. Woods invents induction telegraphy allowing traveling trains and dispatchers to locate and communicate with one another.

1941
Charles Richard Drew successfully researched methods to effectively preserve blood plasma, help blood banks across the country, and save lives during World War II.

I encourage you to be curious today and as you go about your daily life, ask yourself, who invented this?