Black Contributions?

[riceowl]

Just curious, because someone brought this up the other day and I was stuck (likely because of lack of education in the matter):

What have African Americans contributed to America outside of the arts and athletics?

[opebo]

Just curious, because someone brought this up the other day and I was stuck (likely because of lack of education in the matter):

What have African Americans contributed to America outside of the arts and athletics?

Mostly labour, for the first few centuries as slaves, and then later as a very lowly paid serf-like working class.

[Frodo]

Just curious, because someone brought this up the other day and I was stuck (likely because of lack of education in the matter):

What have African Americans contributed to America outside of the arts and athletics?

just to augment what Opebo has already said -they labored as slaves to build the White House, as well as the rest of the nation's capital in the middle of what was then a malaria-infested swamp, as well as were the backbone of this country's economic growth up until industrialization with the end of the Civil War.

they also served as soldiers in each of our wars that we fought including the American Revolution, the Civil War, as well as against the native American tribes in the 'Indian Wars' (the Buffalo Soldiers is a prime example), and fought in the Spanish-American War, the world wars, Korea, Vietnam, and in every war to the present day conflict in Iraq.

and this is just for starters.     

[riceowl]

OK, something new or different that is entirely from African-Americans...serving alongside other races doesn't count.

And yes, the Buffalo Soldier museum is down the street from my university.

[dazzleman]

OK, something new or different that is entirely from African-Americans...serving alongside other races doesn't count.

And yes, the Buffalo Soldier museum is down the street from my university.

I'm not sure what you are looking for.

For most of their history here, blacks had little opportunity to contribute anything other than hard labor due to their sometimes brutal oppression by the white majority.

Still, there have been black inventors, black writers, etc.  I'm sure there is a website that could give you some additional details.

The details are less important than the overall point that blacks have made contributions to a society that historically treated them very poorly.  That is the main reason why there is a huge gulf today between the way white people and black people perceive the American dream, and America in general.  For whites, blacks are the exception that proves the rule, and whites can look more at the big picture and argue that the terrrible treatment of blacks is a relatively small part of it.  That's harder to do when you are black, and you are the exception.

[J.R. Brown]

Here's a few personal accomplishments that I found:

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams: in 1893 performed the first successful open heart surgery at Provident Hospital in Chicago, the first hospital in that city to allow blacks practice medicine.

Ernest Just: advanced the study of parthenogenesis (growth of an organism from an unfertilized egg) pioneered by German physiologist Jacques Loeb and demonstrated the importance of the protoplasm, part of the cell nucleus. He determined that the chemical factors influencing heredity exist in the protoplasm, from which genes extract the necessary information. Despite Just's outstanding performance in and contributions to his field, he was never granted an appointment to a major institution or elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Alondre Oubré: is a medical anthropologist, writer, and research consultant. Over the past twenty years, her research has helped to bridge the gap between orthodox modern medicine and complementary alternative healing practices. She is one of a small number of African American scientists trained in ethnopharmacology-the study of medicinal plants and other natural substances for pharmaceutical use. Dr. Oubré's desire to develop new therapeutic tools to fight disease led her to study medical anthropology.

Benjamin Banneker: was born and spent his entire life on his father's farm in Baltimore County, MD. Lacking an extensive formal education, Banneker taught himself literature, astronomy, history and mathematics with books he borrowed from his friend George Ellicott. He also taught himself to play the flute and violin. Naturally gifted in mathematics, Banneker compiled his first ephemeris in 1791, which gave the positions of the sun, moon and planets for each day of the year; solar and lunar eclipses; daily rising and settings of the sun and other stars; changing lengths of days; daily weather forecasts; tide tables and the like.

This information was the basis of his almanac, a work that was widely published and the subject of considerable discussion. Banneker's interest in science is evidenced by his being the first to record the arrival of the "seventeen-year locusts," or periodical cicadas, a phenomenon he observed three times in his lifetime. Banneker constructed a wooden clock that accurately kept time, even though previously he had seen only a sundial and a pocket watch. He calculated the clock's gear ratios and carved them with a pocket knife, and the clock worked until it was destroyed in a fire after his death.

[Akno21]

I think we shouldn't underestimate the effect they have had on America through sports in an economic sense. I'm sorry to say, White Men Can't Jump, and white men can't sell exouborant amounts of basketball sneakers. There is basically a whole market out there that teenage blacks consume readily, mainly in relation to the NBA.

I'm not really educated on the question, but I'm pretty sure it was a team of all-black laywers including Thurgood Marshall who won Brown v. Board of Ed.

[John Dibble]

[riceowl]

Didn't Banneker design DC as well?

[??????????]

Doubtful he "invented" peanutbutter.

[David S]

Elijah McCoy was able to revolutionize trains with his invention of a lubricating cup.

Excerpt from:
http://www.capitaloutlook.com/History/historyarchives/elijahmccoy.html
As an oiler, McCoy had the task of lubricating the train’s moving parts. It tedious manual labor and the parts could only be oiled when the train was stopped. McCoy figured out a way to keep the train’s engine running by using steam pressure to pump the oil. He created his lubricating cup in his shop by using a piston and a cup. The steam pressure pushed on the piston, distributing oil to where it was needed.
McCoy received a patent for his invention in 1872. His employing company, the Michigan Central Railroad, began using the lubricating cup on its locomotives. It proved very effective, as lubrication was more regular and more evenly distributed. In effect trains could run longer and needed less maintenance.
McCoy’s invention went beyond trains and versions of the lubricating cup were used in factories and aboard ships.
In 1882 McCoy left the railroad company and moved to Detroit. He wanted to devote more time to inventions. His lubricating cup was still very popular and other inventors were offering similar products. However companies knew the quality of McCoy’s machine. They would often ask for “the real McCoy.” This phrase became so popular that people began to use it to mean “the real thing.”

[Alcon]

Doubtful he "invented" peanutbutter.

Um, and what do you base this assertion on?

[KEmperor]

What does a person's skin color have to do with his contributions to Society?

[John Dibble]

Doubtful he "invented" peanutbutter.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpeanutbutter.htm

Looks like the Incas were actually first, but the idea was lost. We consider Guttenburg to be the inventor of the printing press, though the Chinese actually invented one before him. So, Carver was the modern inventor of peanut butter, but not the first inventor.

[PBrunsel]

Remind me to tell General Powell that  people can't think of African American achievements outside of the arts and athletics.

[??????????]

Doubtful he "invented" peanutbutter.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpeanutbutter.htm

Looks like the Incas were actually first, but the idea was lost. We consider Guttenburg to be the inventor of the printing press, though the Chinese actually invented one before him. So, Carver was the modern inventor of peanut butter, but not the first inventor.

It probably would be more credible to say he brought peanut butter to the forefront of the American diet. Before the Civil War most Americans (especially farmers) viewed peanuts as horse & other livestock feed. The only people that ate peanuts on a regular basis were slaves who grew them in their own personal gardens on the plantations. The Civil War introduced the peanut to white America.

[John Dibble]

Doubtful he "invented" peanutbutter.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpeanutbutter.htm

Looks like the Incas were actually first, but the idea was lost. We consider Guttenburg to be the inventor of the printing press, though the Chinese actually invented one before him. So, Carver was the modern inventor of peanut butter, but not the first inventor.

It probably would be more credible to say he brought peanut butter to the forefront of the American diet. Before the Civil War most Americans (especially farmers) viewed peanuts as horse & other livestock feed. The only people that ate peanuts on a regular basis were slaves who grew them in their own personal gardens on the plantations. The Civil War introduced the peanut to white America.

You could say that, but you'd need some proof that slaves had peanut butter.

[??????????]

Doubtful he "invented" peanutbutter.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpeanutbutter.htm

Looks like the Incas were actually first, but the idea was lost. We consider Guttenburg to be the inventor of the printing press, though the Chinese actually invented one before him. So, Carver was the modern inventor of peanut butter, but not the first inventor.

It probably would be more credible to say he brought peanut butter to the forefront of the American diet. Before the Civil War most Americans (especially farmers) viewed peanuts as horse & other livestock feed. The only people that ate peanuts on a regular basis were slaves who grew them in their own personal gardens on the plantations. The Civil War introduced the peanut to white America.

You could say that, but you'd need some proof that slaves had peanut butter.

We dont know who invented jelly, jam, applebutter. But we DO know who invented peanut butter? I doubt one person invented it. It's really just more urban legend then fact IMHO.

[John Dibble]

Doubtful he "invented" peanutbutter.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpeanutbutter.htm

Looks like the Incas were actually first, but the idea was lost. We consider Guttenburg to be the inventor of the printing press, though the Chinese actually invented one before him. So, Carver was the modern inventor of peanut butter, but not the first inventor.

It probably would be more credible to say he brought peanut butter to the forefront of the American diet. Before the Civil War most Americans (especially farmers) viewed peanuts as horse & other livestock feed. The only people that ate peanuts on a regular basis were slaves who grew them in their own personal gardens on the plantations. The Civil War introduced the peanut to white America.

You could say that, but you'd need some proof that slaves had peanut butter.

We dont know who invented jelly, jam, applebutter. But we DO know who invented peanut butter? I doubt one person invented it. It's really just more urban legend then fact IMHO.

We don't know who invented wheel. But we DO know who invented the car?

I find this logic kind of flawed, sorry it just is - just because you don't know the inventor of one thing does not mean you can't know the inventor of another thing, however similar it might be. I don't think this is an urban legend - you really need some evidence if you are going to make such a claim.

[??????????]

To Wikipedia we go.

History

In 1890, George A. Bayle Jr., began to sell ground peanut paste as a protein substitute for people with no or bad teeth. In 1893, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg originated an early variety of peanut butter at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. Kellogg, along with his brother, W.K. Kellogg, patented a process for making peanut butter in 1895, but it used steamed peanuts rather than roasted peanuts.

Contrary to popular belief, the renowned botanist, George Washington Carver, had no hand in inventing this food in addition to the numerous uses for the legume he developed. Peanut butter was widely introduced in 1904 by C.H. Sumner at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (Saint Louis World's Fair) which also popularized the ice cream cone, hot dog and hamburger.

In 1922, Joseph L. Rosefield developed modern peanut butter by using finer grinding, hydrogenation, and a way to keep the oil from separating. This created a creamy texture unlike the earlier peanut butter described as gritty, or pasty. He received a patent for stable peanut butter which had a shelf-life of up to a year.

Swift & Company adopted the technology for their E.K Pond peanut butter which they had introduced somewhat earlier in 1920. In 1928 they changed the name to "Peter Pan". Peter Pan was originally packaged in a tin can similar to one with a turn key and re-closable lid but switched to glass during World War II. In 1932, Rosefield left that company. He formed the Rosefield Packing Co. and began selling "Skippy" peanut butter started from February 1, 1933.

Peanut butter became a very profitable business in the United States. Currently, the best-selling American brand is Jif, a product introduced by Procter & Gamble in 1958. Jif is now made by the J.M Smucker Company. The oldest surviving brand is Krema peanut butter, first sold in 1908.[/i]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_butter

[opebo]

What does a person's skin color have to do with his contributions to Society?

In many societies a person's contributions are strictly proscribed by his skin colour; for example in the South prior to Northern intervention in the 1960's, a black person could only contribute menial labour.

[dazzleman]

What does a person's skin color have to do with his contributions to Society?

In many societies a person's contributions are strictly proscribed by his skin colour; for example in the South prior to Northern intervention in the 1960's, a black person could only contribute menial labour.

I hate to break it to you, but that was basically true in the north as well.