Education
Keith C. Holmes
Global Black Inventor Research Projects, Inc

Black Inventors, Crafting Over 200 Years of Success, clearly highlights the work of Black inventors from over seventy countries.  The author, Keith C. Holmes, has spent more than twenty years researching information on inventions by Black people from Australia, Barbados, Canada, France, Germany, Ghana, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, just to name a few. Without innovations, inventions, plans, financial resources, labor saving devices, materials and muscle, no civilization can exist and flourish.

            Black inventors, from the very beginning of their involvement in the invention and patenting process, have had an important and earth shattering impact on the world. This book highlights the work of early black inventors from almost all fifty states in the United States. It gives details about the first Black inventor who obtained a patent in both the Caribbean and the United States. 

           In the United States, to date, sixteen African American men have been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Two of these inventors, Jan E, Matzeliger, (Suriname) and Elijah McCoy, (Colchester, Canada) were born outside the United States. We have also cited a number of African inventors who have received the WIPO Gold medal for their inventions. Our research has uncovered and cited a number of inventors of color from the Caribbean and beyond. Global Black Inventor Research Projects, Inc., recognizes the importance of inventions by indigenous people. Our research has uncovered thousands of inventions by people of African descent. Our first publication is globally recognized as one of the leading books on the subject of black inventors.

      This book documents a number of the inventions, patents and labor saving devices conceived by black inventors. Africans, before the period of their enslavement, developed: agricultural tools, building materials, medicinal herbs, cloth and weapons, among many other inventions. Though millions of black people were brought to Canada, the Caribbean, Central and South America and the United States in chains and under the yoke of slavery, it is relatively unknown that thousands of Africans and their descendants developed numerous labor saving devices and inventions that spawned companies which generated money and jobs, worldwide.

         The focus of this book is to introduce readers to the facts, that inventions created by black people, both past and present, were developed and patented on a global scale. This also means that there are inventors in every civilization whose ideas have been turned into inventions. In the past the focus has been on American and European inventors. Today, the new giants in the patenting process are Brazil, China, India, Japan, Nigeria, South Africa and South Korea.

        Recently, Dr. Patricia Bath was nominated to the National Inventors Hall of Fame; but, an African American woman has not yet been inducted into this prestigious organization.  Mr. Holmes documents the creativity of black women inventors from Africa, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and the United States, and provides readers with a comprehensive view of the ground-breaking achievements of black inventors – both male and female.

             This publication is a part of the library collection of over 700 national, public and state libraries including museums, schools and bookstores in twenty-three countries worldwide. Our publication is now cataloged under a number countries including:
www.collectionscanada.ca, www.copac.ac.uk, www.loc.gov, www.nla.gov.au, www.sabinet.co.za, www.nielsen.bookdata.co.uk.

        This is one of the first books that address the diversity of black inventors and their inventions from a global perspective. The material available in this book is an introduction to the world of black inventors. It gives the reader, researcher, librarian, student, and teacher materials they needed to effectively understand that the Black inventor is not only a national phenomenon, but also a global giant.

         Black Inventors, Crafting Over 200 Years of Success identifies black inventors from five continents, over seventy countries, including almost all fifty states in the United States. Citing a number of black inventors from 1769 – 2007, this book is one of the most comprehensive works on black Inventors since Henry E. Baker’s research on Black inventors in the early 20th century.