Which Black inventor has received the greatest number of U.S. patents?
1. Benjamin Banneker
2. Elijah McCoy
3. Jan Matzeliger
4. Lewis Latimer
Elijah McCoy
While the greatest number of patents of any American belongs to Thomas Edison, who had over 1,000; the greatest number of patents awarded to an African American inventor belongs to Elijah McCoy with 57 inventions.
Who was the first Black woman surgeon in the South?
1. Dorothy Lavinia Brown
2. Jeanne Craig Sinkford
3. Susan McKinney
4. Jane C. Wright
Dorothy Lavinia Brown
Dr. Dorothy Lavinia Brown spent her childhood in an orphanage and grew up to become the first African American woman surgeon in the South, eventually being made chief of surgery at Nashville's Riverside Hospital in Nashville Tennessee.
Who was the African-American inventor who co-developed a microphone in the 1960s; holds 47 U.S. and more than 200 foreign patents on microphones and techniques for making polymer foil-electrets?
1. Norbert Rillieux
2. Percy Julian
3. Samuel Massie
4. James West
James West
In 1960 scientist James West, teamed up with fellow scientist Gerhard M. Sessler to develop a compact microphone. In 1962, they finished development on the product, which relied on their invention of electret transducers.
Who was the first Black inventor to receive official recognition for his invention?
1. Henry Blair for the corn harvester
2. Elijah McCoy for the automatic lubricator
3. Hyram S. Thomas for the potato chips
4. Thomas W. Stewart for the mop holder
Henry Blair for the corn harvester
The first Black inventor to receive official recognition was Henry Blair of Maryland. He received a patent for a corn harvester on October 14, 1834.
Who was the trader who was once chief of the Crow Indians who also discovered Pueblo, Colorado and the Sierra Nevada pass in California which is named after him?
1. Sierro Negro
2. John Black
3. Carlos Nevada
4. James Beckwourth
James Beckwourth
Jim Beckwourth, an African American fur trader and explorer, was important in the early exploration and settlement of the American West. He founded the town of Pueblo, Colorado and discovered the Sierra Nevada pass in California, known as the Beckwourth Pass.
Who was the physician, chemist and scholar who became the first African American woman in space in 1991?
1. Phyllis Wheatley
2. Mae Jamison
3. Ella Stewart
4. Aime James
Mae Jemison
Mae Carol Jemison is a physician and NASA astronaut who was also the first African American woman to travel in space. She went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992.
Who was the Nigerian-born scientist and inventor known for first using a Connection Machine supercomputer to help analyze petroleum fields?
1. Jerimiah Ogobodo
2. Chinua Achebe
3. Philip Emeagwali
4. Ahmed Musa
Philip Emeagwali
The World Wide Web owes much of its existence to Nigerian-born scientist, Philip Emeagwali, a math whiz who came up with the formula for allowing a large number of computers to communicate at once.
Who is the modern African American inventor and engineer who invented the Super Soaker water gun?
1. George Foreman
2. Lonnie George Johnson
3. Earl S. Bell
4. Edward George Alcorn
Lonnie George Johnson
Lonnie George Johnson is a Black inventor and engineer well known for inventing the Super Soaker water gun which has ranked among the world's top 20 best-selling toys every year since its release.
Which of the following prominent African Americans does NOT have a ship named after him/her?
1. Langston Hughes
2. Harriet Tubman
3. George Washington Carver
4. Booker T. Washington
Langston Hughes
Liberty Ships were cargo ships built in large numbers for the U.S. merchant marine during World War II and were named after prominent deceased Americans. Of the 2,711 Liberty Ships built, 17 were named after African Americans. These were Robert S. Abbott, Robert J. Banks, George Washington Carver, William Cox, Frederick Douglass, Paul Laurence Dunbar, John Hope, James Weldon Johnson, George A. Lawson, John Merrick, John H. Murphy, Edward A. Savoy, Harriett Tubman, Robert L. Vann, James K. Walker, Booker T. Washington, Bert Williams. Langston Hughes did not have a ship named after him.
Who was the African American killed in the space shuttle, Challenger?
1. Mae Jamison
2. Ronald McNair
3. Ben McDonald
4. Guion Bluford
Ronald McNair
Ronald Erwin McNair was a physicist and NASA astronaut who died during the explosive launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, January 28, 1986. With him, six of his colleagues were also killed, including the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe.
Who was the Black man who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition westward?
1. Macon
2. Du Sable
3. Cleveland
4. York
York
York, whose full name was never known, was an enslaved man who participated with Merriweather Lewis and William Clark in their explorations known as the Lewis and Clark Expeditions. While he earned no money, he participated as a full member of the expedition.
Who was the Greek historian who traveled through Africa and wrote its history?
1. Herodotus
2. Nostradamus
3. Caesar
4. Alexander
Herodotus
Herodotus was the Greek historian who travelled through Africa and documented what he saw, making his observations the earliest history of the regions he visited. 2440 years ago he became the first person to describe Egyptians as having Black skin and wooly hair.
Who was the Black man and the first settler of what would become Chicago?
1. Cortez
2. York
3. Du Sable
4. Estevan
Du Sable
Jean-Baptiste-Point du Sable, a Black man from Haiti, was a frontier trader, trapper and farmer and was also the discoverer and first resident of what is now Chicago.
Which African American invented the automatic gear shift?
1. Lewis Temple
2. Norbert Rilleaux
3. Frederick McKinnley Jones
4. Richard B. Spikes
Richard B. Spikes
Richard Bowie Spikes was an African-American inventor who holds a number of patents for inventions or improvements on existing inventions. One of his inventions is the automatic gear shift device based on the automatic transmission for automobiles and other motor vehicles.
Who was the African American physician who performed the first prototype open-heart surgery?
1. Charles Drew
2. Frank A. Brown
3. Daniel Hale Williams
4. Ernest Everett Just
Daniel Hale Williams
Daniel Hale Williams is the first person to perform an open-heart surgery; but it is also noteworthy that he was the first surgeon to open the chest cavity successfully without the patient dying of infection.
Who was the Black engineer, draftsman and inventor who worked with Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison?
1. J. A. Sweeting
2. Thomas W. Stewart
3. Lewis Latimer
4. George Brock
Lewis Latimer
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell employed Lewis Latimer, then a draftsman, to draft the necessary drawings required to receive a patent for Bell's telephone. In 1881 Lewis Latimer was issued his own patent for the electric lamp, and in 1882 he was issued a patent for the “process of manufacturing carbons” (the filament used in incandescent light bulbs). Around 1885 he was hired by Thomas Edison and began improving upon his boss’s invention.
Who is the African American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science communicator who was appointed the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York?
1. George Edward Alcom, Jr.
2. George Robert Carruthers
3. Percy Lavon Julian
4. Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, and science communicator who was appointed to this position in 1996.
Who was the first Black woman to earn a PhD in chemistry and serve as a biochemist?
1. Marie Maynard Daly
2. Alice Augusta Ball
3. Mary Mahoney
4. Patricia Bath
Marie Maynard Daly
Marie Maynard Daly was an American biochemist and the first Black American woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry.
Who is the African American physician, surgeon and medical researcher known as the inventor of the blood bank?
1. Ernest Everett Just
2. Daniel Hale Williams
3. Frank A. Brown
4. Charles Drew
Charles Drew
Charles Drew was an African-American surgeon who pioneered methods of storing blood plasma for transfusion and organized the first large-scale blood bank in the U.S.
Who was the enslaved Moroccan who in the 1500s was one of the earliest explorers of what would become the American Southwest?
1. Matthew Henson
2. Alonzo Castilla
3. Andre Corrazano
4. Estevan
Estevan
Estevan, born in West Africa and sold into slavery in a Portuguese town on Morocco's Atlantic coast, was the first African to explore the American Southwest. He was captured by Native Americans twice and the final time he was executed.
What young Black woman invented the sanitary napkin belt?
1. Kenya Morris
2. Carolyn Murry
3. Nancy McLean
4. Mary Kenner
Mary Kenner
On May 15, 1956, Mary Kenner was awarded a patent for her invention of the sanitary belt. She was only 18 years old. About three years later Kenner was awarded another patent for inventing a sanitary belt that was constructed with a moisture proof napkin pocket.
What North African served as Columbus’ pilot on his journey to America?
1. Pedro Alonso Nino
2. Nuflido De Olan
3. Pizarro
4. Diega El Negro
Pedro Alonso Nino
Pedro Alonso Nino was a navigator and explorer of African ancestry, who sailed with Christopher Columbus on his first expedition to the New World in 1492 as pilot of the Santa Maria.
Who was the African American astronomer, mathematician and author who constructed America’s first functional clock?
1. Benjamin Banneker
2. Garret Morgan
3. Charles Drew
4. Ernest Just
Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin Banneker devoted three years to building a clock on his own, the first American built clock, after seeing an imported one in the 1750s.
Who was the African American who took part in Admiral Perry’s expedition to the North Pole?
1. Matthew Patterson
2. Estevan
3. James Beckwourth
4. Matthew Henson
Matthew Henson
Matthew Alexander Henson was the first African-American Arctic explorer, and with Robert Peary, co-discovered the North Pole in 1909.
Which African American developed the theory that revolutionized the sugar industry?
1. Lewis Temple
2. Frederick McKinnley Jones
3. Norbert Rilleaux
4. Joseph Lee
Norbert Rilleaux
Sometime between 1834 and 1843, Norbert Rilleaux revolutionized sugar processing with the invention of the Multiple Effect Evaporator under Vacuum.
