We live in the twenty-first century with modern comforts to help make our lives simpler and easier. It wouldn’t have been possible without the unrelenting efforts of numerous scientists and their useful inventions. America is one of the major hubs of new scientific discoveries and behind those are innumerable and even unknown African American scientists’ efforts. Before abolition of slavery blacks were prohibited from seeking formal education. Especially the South was a hotbed of rampant racism and social prejudice against blacks that disallowed slave literacy following a series of slave rebellions. As a result, most of their inventions were usurped by their owners and not given the right to have claim over their crafts. However, in 1870, this law was revised allowing blacks to hold patent. Even after the Civil War, African Americans were unable to find quality educational and vocational training equivalent to that of whites. Nonetheless, the blacks refused to give up striving for higher aims and proved their worth with their invaluable inventions. These famous African American scientists come from diverse field of knowledge making discoveries in physics, mathematics, medical, space and nuclear sciences.

The first name that comes up in the history of African American intellects is Benjamin Banneker. Born in 1973, in Baltimore County, Banneker was a celebrated almanac author, astronomer, clockmaker and mathematician. He made a clock himself after studying the workings of a friend’s watch. Moreover, he taught himself astronomical calculations so accurately that later he predicted a solar eclipse. He published a book on the subject predicting the eclipses. In fact, President George Washington appointed him to survey the borders of the original District of Columbia.

George Washington Carver was another popular African American inventor and botanist. He was known for discovering an alternative to growing cotton helping hundreds of farmers in the process. Born in 1860, in Diamond, Missouri, Carver attended Simpson