inventors

Ruth Rogan Benerito was a pioneer in much more than driving safety – her groundbreaking work in textiles included her team’s discovery of wrinkle-resistant cotton.

Born in Lowndes County, Mississippi, in 1857, Baker became a Patent Office employee around 1877. He soon sought to dispel racist claims that his fellow African-Americans could not be inventors. He began a list of such inventors throughout U.S. history.