Between 1870 and 1940 — a time period that included the Second Industrial Revolution and the outbreak of Jim Crow laws — only 726 patents were filed by African-Americans. Economist Lisa Cook calculated that number would have much higher, were it not for racial discrimination and violence against African-Americans.
Music by Drop Electric. Find us: Twitter/ Facebook.
Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, PocketCasts and NPR One.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.