blackhistorymonth
Latest
Netflix expands its podcast repertoire with 'Strong Black Legends'
You probably don't think of Netflix as a go-to source for podcasts (many don't even know it has podcasts), but the service is determined to change your mind. It's premiering Strong Black Legends, a podcast (iTunes, Spotify, RSS) about African-Americans who've had an effect on Hollywood and entertainment at large, on February 12th. The first season will hosted by Tracy Clayton, the former host of BuzzFeed's well-received Another Round podcast, and looks to have a strong guest list.
Lonnie Johnson, the rocket scientist and Super Soaker inventor
To celebrate Black History Month, Engadget is running a series of profiles honoring African-American pioneers in the world of science and technology. Today we take a look at the life and work of Lonnie Johnson. Lonnie Johnson is not quite a household name, but many of his famous creations, like the Super Soaker, are. To truly appreciate Johnson's achievements, we should start at the beginning. Ever since he was a child in Mobile, Alabama, he wanted to be a maker and a creator. In 1968, at Williamson High School, then an all-black school, Johnson designed a 4-foot tall, remote-controlled robot, which he worked on for over a year and built using scrap metal. He called it "Linex," and it won him the main prize at a science fair that year. Johnson recalls being the only minority student in the competition, which was hosted by the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa -- a place known for attempting to block black students from enrolling. "The only thing anybody from the university said to us during the entire competition was, 'Goodbye,' and, 'Y'all drive safe now,'" he told Biography.com in an interview. Eventually, Johnson earned the nickname "The Professor," a moniker that years later would seem ever so fitting.
Jerry Lawson, a self-taught engineer, gave us video game cartridges
To celebrate Black History Month, Engadget is running a series of profiles honoring African-American pioneers in the world of science and technology. Today we take a look at the life and work of Jerry Lawson. If you've got fond memories of blowing into video game cartridges, you've got Gerald "Jerry" Lawson to thank. As the head of engineering and marketing for Fairchild Semiconductor's gaming outfit in the mid-'70s, Lawson developed the first home gaming console that utilized interchangeable cartridges, the Fairchild Channel F. That system never saw the heights of popularity of consoles from Atari, Nintendo and Sega, but it was a significant step forward for the entire gaming industry. Prior to the Channel F, games like Pong were built directly into their hardware -- there was no swapping them out to play something else -- and few believed that you could even give a console a microprocessor of its own. Lawson, who passed away at 70 from diabetes complications in 2011, was the first major African-American figure in the game industry. And, just like the tech world today, it still isn't as diverse as it should be.
Annie Easley helped make modern spaceflight possible
To celebrate Black History Month, Engadget is running a series of profiles honoring African-American pioneers in the world of science and technology. Today we take a look at the life and work of Annie Easley. Few people are brilliant enough to be a computer programmer or a mathematician. Even fewer can add "rocket scientist for NASA" to their resume. Annie Easley, however, was all three. During her 34-year career, she worked not only on technologies that led to hybrid vehicles, but also on software that enabled great strides in spaceflight and exploration. And if that wasn't notable enough, Easley also did all of this as one of the first few African-Americans in her field.
Mark Dean designed the first IBM PC while breaking racial barriers
To celebrate Black History month, Engadget is running a series of profiles honoring African American pioneers in the world of science and technology. Today we take a look at the life and work of Mark Dean. Dr. Mark Dean, an African-American computer scientist and engineer, spent over 30 years at IBM pursuing the Next Big Thing. He was chief engineer of the 12-person team that designed the original IBM PC in the early '80s, earning him three of the nine original patents for that device. Dean was also instrumental in designing the Industry Standard Architecture bus (which made it easy to plug external devices into IBM's PCs), laid the groundwork for color PC monitors and led the team that created the first gigahertz microprocessor. And despite his many accomplishments shaping our modern computing landscape, Dean isn't afraid to admit that the PC may now be going the way of the dodo.
