BLACK HISTORY MONTH: RECOGNIZING BLACK LEADERS WHO CHANGED THE SUPPLY CHAIN & TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY
Black History Month is a time to recognize the contributions and achievements of Black leaders and to amplify and empower Black voices. It's an opportunity to honor the past, acknowledge the present, and drive lasting change for the future.
In honor of Black History Month, the Radiant Network is highlighting Black supply chain and transportation leaders who have paved the way to a more inclusive, diverse future and continue to shape the supply chain industry into what it is today.
Here's to the trailblazers in our industry!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BLACK HISTORY BEYOND FEBRUARY
While Black History Month observes the past, the Radiant Network is motivated by visions of an even brighter future.
In honor of the Black community's excellence and to celebrate its history, Black History Month is observed every February in the United States and Canada. At Radiant, we pay tribute to those who helped shape our company and our industry today and are hopeful about our work to empower a more inclusive, accessible tomorrow.
Amplify Black Voices
These words ring true as we celebrate Black History in February and beyond while reflecting on the bravery and achievements of those who came before us. At Radiant, we strive to celebrate and amplify the voices of today's Black community while recognizing the sacrifices made by Black leaders in the past.
We do this because acknowledging the past opens doors to the future. Distinguished Black author, editor, and publisher Dr. Carter G. Woodson dedicated his life to discovering, studying, and honoring African-Americans in history, leading to the establishment of Black History Month. Throughout his life, he stressed that depriving a people's history and tradition makes them "a negligible factor in the thought of the world."
Radiant Forward: Opportunity to Look Ahead
Our Black History Month campaign serves as a reminder to acknowledge the strength and perseverance of Black leaders and to learn from their accomplishments, which continue to shape the supply chain and transportation industry today.
After sharing the stories of these courageous Black innovators and inventors, we hope you may remember their contributions to our rich history and use them to push toward a more diverse and inclusive industry.
ELIJAH MCCOY, INVENTOR & ENGINEER
Elijah McCoy was a pioneering African-American mechanical engineer and inventor best known for originating lubrication devices to make train travel more efficient. Despite his qualifications, McCoy faced racial discrimination preventing him from getting a job as an engineer in the United States. Eventually, he became a fireman for the Michigan Central Railroad. In this role, he discovered inefficiencies in train mechanics and developed inventions to make a significant difference in railroad operations.
Early Years
McCoy was born in 1844 in Colchester, Ontario, Canada. His parents were enslaved people who had escaped from Kentucky to Canada via the Underground Railroad. The family returned to the U.S. in 1847 and settled in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Innovation & Engineering
At age fifteen, McCoy studied mechanical engineering at a school in Scotland. Unfortunately, due to racial barriers, he could not find work upon his return home. Professional positions were only available to some African Americans at the time, regardless of qualifications. So instead, he opted to work for the Michigan Central Railroad as a fireman, which included lubricating engine parts. However, the process of lubricating steam engines could have been more efficient. The trains had to stop and start again whenever the engine needed lubrication. By putting his engineering skills to work, McCoy invented an automatic lubricator to help ease the process.
Invention Patents
In 1872, Elijah McCoy received his first patent for an automatic lubricating device. The invention allowed engines to be lubricated while they ran, which saved both time and money, and cemented McCoy as an innovator in his field.
McCoy received nearly 60 patents during his lifetime. While many of his inventions were related to lubrication systems, he also developed designs for other machines, including a lawn sprinkler and an ironing board.
Though recognized for his achievements at the time, McCoy's name often did not appear on his inventions. Instead, he would generally sell his patent rights or sign the rights over to his employers, as he needed more resources to mass produce or manufacture his inventions. Finally, in 1920, McCoy formed the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company in Detroit, Michigan, to build lubricators bearing his name. Under his new company, he improved and sold the graphite lubricator and other inventions.
Lasting Legacy
McCoy continued to strengthen his mechanical lubricator invention and design new devices. His inventions improved train systems and were used in oil drilling, mining equipment, construction, and factory tools. As a result, the Michigan Central Railroad promoted him to an instructor, and he later worked as a patent consultant for the railroad industry.
McCoy was greatly admired for his ingenuity and accomplishments, particularly among African-Americans. Having earned his place as a masterful mechanical engineer and inventor when Black Americans faced widespread discriminatory practices, he created a distinguished legacy.
In his "Story of the Negro," Booker T. Washington cited McCoy as the Black inventor with the greatest number of U.S. patents. In 2001, McCoy was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In addition, a historic monument stands outside his old workshop in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and the Elijah J. McCoy Midwest Regional U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Detroit was named in honor of him.
With Elijah McCoy's inventions, the transportation industry is more efficient today. His name is practically synonymous with quality workmanship. It is said to be referenced in the English-speaking expression "the real McCoy," an idiom and metaphor meaning "the real thing" or "the genuine article."
LOIS COOPER, ENGINEER
Lois Cooper accomplished many remarkable achievements as an African American woman in transportation engineering in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Cooper's perseverance in the face of adversity and her desire to improve things in her field fueled a notable transportation career and left a lasting impression on future generations of Black engineers.
Early Years
Cooper was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1931. She studied at historically Black Tougaloo College before moving to California, where she attended Los Angeles City College and Los Angeles State College to study mathematics. She was often the only Black woman in her classes.
Engineering & Mathematics
After graduation, Cooper got a job as an engineering aide at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), becoming the first Black woman in California to pass the Professional Engineers (PE) License Exam and the first Black female transportation engineer to be hired in the Caltrans Engineering Department.
Cooper said she faced discrimination early on at Caltrans in an interview about her experiences: "It just seems like people are looking at you differently because you didn't share bathrooms back in those days."
Transportation Projects
Using her knowledge of mathematics and engineering, Cooper could figure out the math behind freeways without calculators by using coordinates, sines, and cosines. She figured out the alignment of freeways to create a draft for construction managers by determining bearings and coordinates.
Cooper worked on many projects over the years and was directly involved with creating several named freeways in Southern California, such as the I-105 Century Freeway, San Diego Freeway, Long Beach Freeway, San Gabriel River Freeway, and Riverside Freeway.
Lasting Legacy
Cooper was an important figure in the Civil Rights Division at Caltrans and helped to mandate that Caltrans hire minority workers in freeway construction because many of the proposed freeways went directly through low-income communities in California. She was also involved in the Los Angeles Council of Black Professional Engineers (LACBPE) while teaching math and engineering classes and advocating for more math and engineering education opportunities.
Without the work of behind-the-scenes engineers like Lois Cooper, the freeway and transportation system we are used to may not look the same today. In addition, she opened doors for aspiring Black engineers and mathematicians to continue to modernize transportation operations.
ANDREW JACKSON BEARD, INVENTOR
The railroad and transportation industry owes a great deal to Andrew Jackson Beard's innovative genius. An African American farmer and inventor, Beard transformed railroad safety by introducing two improvements to the railroad car coupler—and became one of the first inventors to profit from his inventions, earning millions in today's money.
Early Years
Beard was born into slavery in Alabama in 1849. Emancipated at age 15, a year later, he married and became a farmer in a small town outside Birmingham. Not only was Beard a farmer and inventor, but also a carpenter, blacksmith, railroad worker, and businessman. He eventually built a flour mill in Hardwicks, Alabama, and successfully operated it for several years.
Natural Talent
With no formal training, his talent for building and inventing flourished into several designs. In 1881, Beard patented one of his plows, which he sold for $4,000 in 1884. Beard invented another plow in 1887 and sold it for $5,200. He went into real estate with this money and made about $30,000. Beard then invented a rotary steam engine in 1889, patented in 1892.
On Track
In 1892, Beard patented a design that made two notable improvements to railroad car couplers. Before his invention, workers had the dangerous task of manually placing a pin in a link to connect two railroad cars. Stories tell that Beard had lost a leg in a car coupling accident when he worked for Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad as a coupler.
His invention, the "Jenny Coupler," drastically reduced the possibility of serious injury by enabling railroad coupling to be performed automatically. His coupler had two interlocking pieces that automatically locked together when rail cars bumped into each other, eliminating the need for a man to jump between the two rail cars. Beard was paid $50,000 for the patent rights to his Jenny coupler, worth nearly $1.5 million today.
Lasting Legacy
Beard passed away in 1921. His contributions helped revolutionize the industry with the "Jenny Coupler," saving countless lives and limbs since his invention, with improved versions still in use today. So vital to the safety of railroad workers, Congress passed the Federal Safety Appliance Act the same year the inventor patented his coupler, mandating automatic couplers. In 2006, Andrew Beard was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Despite being born into oppression and facing great adversity in the South, Andrew Beard earned thousands of dollars which in today's money makes him a millionaire when it was practically unheard of for Black citizens to be wealthy and powerful, all while disrupting bias and paving the way for many technologies, industries, and subsequent Black generations.
BESSIE COLEMAN, AVIATOR
Bessie Coleman was an American aviator. She took to the skies as the first African American and Native-American woman pilot and the first American to receive an international pilot's license.
Early Years
Coleman's brothers served in the military during World War I and told her stories about French women pilots in the war. Women were not allowed to fly airplanes in the United States then, though her brothers' stories inspired her to become a pilot.
Aviation Dreams
She applied to flight schools across the country, but no school would accept her because she was African American and a woman. Consequently, Coleman began taking French classes at night while continuing to work as a manicurist during the day so that she could apply to flight schools in France. Eventually, she was accepted into the Caudron Brothers' School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France. She received her international pilot's license in 1921 and then returned to the United States.
Taking Flight
Coleman toured the country and gave flight lessons, performed air tricks, and encouraged African Americans and women to learn how to fly. Coleman's flying tricks earned her the nicknames "Brave Bessie," "Queen Bess," and "The Only Race Aviatrix in the World." Throughout her career, she only performed in desegregated areas and became well-known for publicly standing up for her beliefs.
Lasting Legacy
Coleman's true objective was to inspire women and African Americans to work hard to achieve their goals. She was saving her money and working towards opening a United States flight school for African Americans when an untimely and tragic test-flight accident cut her life short in 1926. Yet, Bessie Coleman's aviation legacy lives on as she inspires generations of aviators worldwide, including the Tuskegee Airmen and NASA astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African American Woman to travel to space.
The aviation and transportation industry would not be what it is today without the achievements of Black leaders like Bessie Coleman. She broke down race and gender barriers in an industry where more than a century later, African Americans and women are soaring to new heights around the globe.
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