Black Inventors

About the Book

Black Inventors was written to generate a state of awareness among all individuals regarding contributions made by Black Americans to this society. The book contains the images of black inventors, the drawings of their inventions, and the dates of patent numbers, with brief captions of each invention. This book is not intended to give an in-depth history of the inventors and their inventions but to provide general information and serve as a reference tool. The book is easy reading and provides just enough information, hopefully, to facilitate further research.

About the Author

Sidney Wallace was born outside of Memphis, Tennessee on a farm in Tunica County Mississippi. He developed an interest in writing songs while in elementary school and later during high school where he crossed paths with Ike Turner of Ike and Tina Turner fame. Sidney began writing songs for Ike. Ike was a native of Clarksdale, Mississippi, just a few miles from where Sid was born. Ike soon left Clarksdale and moved to St. Louis leaving Sid to seek other outlets for his musical interests. Sid had a variety of interests while growing up, such as becoming an inventor, a musician, a writer or an actor. Within days after Ike left Clarksville, Sid turned his attention to Memphis, where he met Rufus Thomas and Otis Redding, and became a co-writer at Stax Records with the then-not-so-famous Hayes and Porter song writing team, which consisted of Isaac Hayes and David Porter. This also provided Sid with the opportunity to exercise his talents as a stand-up comic and musician. He performed at many of the clubs in Memphis supplementing his income while attending college. He did impersonation acts of well-known celebrities. This continued until Sid moved to St. Louis to further his educational career. In spite of all the career interests he had growing up, deep down inside he really wanted to be a teacher. Therefore, he enrolled in Harris Teacher College. He felt a need to reach back knowing that this was one of the best ways to be of service to young people. Seeing so much poverty in his hometown while growing up, he desperately wanted to make things better. He correctly perceived that one way for poor young people, especially young black men, to be successful in life was to get an education, be creative, talented, productive and learn to manage and control their resources. Sid states, "One has little or no control over natural talent or creativity, but with an adequate education, we can master all the requisite skills for success." Dedicating his life to reaching his dream while helping youngsters to reach theirs, Dr. Sidney Wallace has served as a teacher and junior high school principal in St. Louis, Missouri and now serves as an elementary school principal in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.