Museum recognizes black inventors

The mailbox, traffic light and other inventions were showcased Monday at the traveling International Black Inventions Museum.

The museum has traveled to 38 states and to countries such as Ghana. Inventions displayed in the Bell Memorial Union included replicas of the cell phone, the microphone and the hairbrush.

Hamza Salifu became the museum's curator in 2002. His mother started the museum in 1988, and it went international 10 years later, he said.

The museum's purpose is to recognize and respect the intelligence of blacks, he said.

Most of the inventions in the BMU also had copies of their U.S. patents on display. The patents are proof that the black inventors actually created those items, Salifu said.

In 1988, Patricia Bath was awarded a patent for the LaserPhaco probe, which removes cataracts from eyes. She was also the first black female physician.

Garrett Morgan, who invented the traffic signal, received a patent for the gas mask in 1912.

Lydia Newman received a patent in 1898 for the hairbrush, and Sarah Boone was given a patent in 1892 for the ironing board.

Students who aren't taking classes in African or African American history wouldn't necessarily know who invented these items, said Tray Robinson, Chico State's diversity coordinator.

Blacks made products people use every day, and the museum is an educational tool to learn about those inventors, he said.

Biology major Danielle Bert said she would probably visit the museum because she likes history.

"It doesn't matter that a black person invented it," Bert said. "History is history."

Freshman Christina Dunn visited the museum for a class cultural-event assignment, she said.

Dunn said the museum was cool because a lot of people overcame adversity to become inventors.

The College of Engineering, Computer Science and Construction Management has sponsored the museum the past four or five times it has come to Chico, said dean Kenneth Derucher.

The museum is a part of an awareness program that crosses diversity lines, he said.

"It promotes pride in our African American population," Derucher said.

Shannon Lawrence can be reached at slawrence@theorion.com

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