As Black History Month continues, the conversation often turns to enduring struggles and cultural triumphs. However, in the halls of the Indiana Statehouse, City-County Councilman Keith Graves (District 9) pointed to a more fundamental truth: the very infrastructure of modern American life — from the traffic light that guides our everyday commute to the refrigerator that preserves our everyday foods — is profoundly shaped by Black inventors whose stories have been systematically overlooked.
“The successes and the value that they (Black innovators) brought to our society is lost over the years, and sometimes intentionally lost,” Graves said during the Indy Black Chamber of Commerce’s Lunch with Legislators event.
Graves highlights figures like Garrett A. Morgan, the son of freed slaves who patented an early three-position traffic signal in 1923, a direct precursor to the lights that now orchestrate global traffic. He points to John Standard, who in 1887 refined the refrigerator with an improved ice-chamber (‘ice box’) design, advancing the technology of modern kitchen preservation.
Perhaps most poetically, Graves notes the humble reservoir in the ballpoint pen, an innovation by William B. Purvis in 1890 that solved the problem of even ink flow.
“All these pens in here,” Graves remarked, “those are Black inventions.”
These are not niche footnotes; they are pillars of daily life. Yet, as Graves argues, the narrative of American innovation has too often been whitewashed.
“We talk a lot about our experiences on the negative side,” Graves said. “I want us to promote the positives that we brought to this country and to the world.”
This erasure has tangible consequences for the present. Graves, a financial advisor with over two decades of experience, connects the historical dots to a contemporary crisis: the stifling of Black wealth creation.
“We had the country’s first Black millionaire in this city,” Graves said, referring to Madam C.J. Walker, the haircare magnate who built her empire in Indianapolis. “And there’s no reason why we shouldn’t see just tons of examples of her legacy around our city. We see Irsay, we see Eskenazi, we see Lucas … but we don’t see Black families’ names on buildings.”
His sentiment underscores a central theme: innovation without ownership and recognition fuels inequality. The genius of Black creators was harnessed to build national prosperity. At the same time, systemic barriers often prevented them and their descendants from fully sharing in its wealth.
The fabric of modern American life is woven with inventions by Black innovators, whose groundbreaking work from the late 19th century onward created the infrastructure of our daily routines. In 1881, Lewis Latimer made electric lighting practical and affordable with his durable carbon filament. Frederick McKinley Jones advanced the modern grocery supply chain in 1940 by inventing the mobile refrigeration unit. This legacy continued into the 1970s with Shirley Jackson, whose pioneering telecommunications research laid the foundation for touch-tone phones, fiber optics and caller ID.
Co-author of “Foundational Black American Inventors: 20 Household Inventions You Use Every Day,” Theresa Almon knows how important it is to preserve Black history for people.
“Why didn’t we learn this in school?” Almon asked on social media. “The doorknob microphone, potato chips and so much more were invented by foundational Black Americans.”
OLED montiors? Invented by Mark Dean. The standing dust pan? Invented by Lloyd Ray. The modern indoor toilet? Created by Thomas Elkins. The lightweight military cot? An invention of Leonard Bailey. The keychain? Frederick Loudin. The modern indoor clothes dryer? George Sampson.
The list of Black innovations is virtually endless.
The councilman’s call is for a conscious re-orientation — in education, in public discourse and in policy.
“We need to be focused on creating Black wealth again,” Graves told the Indianapolis Recorder. Graves views events like “Lunch with Legislators” as foundational for building the alliances necessary to “protect success,” noting that “when we see Black people succeeding, we see the forces that be trying to thwart it.”
Looking forward, Graves announced his kickoff event for his City-County Council re-election campaign, centered on education, homelessness, healthcare access and Indianapolis’ crisis-level eviction rates. His uses his platform as a modern extension of the same fight for equity and recognition.
The story of Black innovation is not a segregated subplot. It is the story of the American pencil, pantry, and street corner. As Graves powerfully reminds us, honoring that history is not merely an act of retroactive gratitude; it is an essential step toward building a future where the next generation of Garrett Morgans and Madam Walkers can see their names — and their legacies — written into the fabric of the nation they helped invent.
“We should be teaching about this all year, not just one month,” Almon said.
Contact Multimedia Reporter Noral Parham at 317=762=7846. Follow him on X @3Noral. For more news, visit indianapolisrecorder.com.
Noral Parham is the multi-media reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder, one of the oldest Black publications in the country. Prior to joining the Recorder, Parham served as the community advocate of the MLK Center in Indianapolis and senior copywriter for an e-commerce and marketing firm in Denver.
