Editing African Americans (section)

===Literature and academics===
[[File:Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye author portrait).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Toni Morrison]], recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature]]
Many African American authors have written stories, poems, and essays influenced by their experiences as African Americans. [[African-American literature|African American literature]] is a major genre in American literature. Famous examples include [[Langston Hughes]], [[James Baldwin (writer)|James Baldwin]], [[Richard Wright (author)|Richard Wright]], [[Zora Neale Hurston]], [[Ralph Ellison]], Nobel Prize winner [[Toni Morrison]], and [[Maya Angelou]].

[[African-American inventor|African American inventor]]s have created many widely used devices in the world and have contributed to international [[innovation]]. [[Norbert Rillieux]] created the technique for converting sugar cane juice into white sugar crystals. Moreover, Rillieux left [[Louisiana]] in 1854 and went to France, where he spent ten years working with the Champollions deciphering [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|Egyptian hieroglyphics]] from the [[Rosetta Stone]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.inventions.org/culture/african/rillieux.html|title=Norbert Rillieux|publisher=Inventors Assistance League|access-date=January 29, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204165759/https://inventions.org/culture/african/rillieux.html|archive-date=December 4, 2010}}</ref> Most slave inventors were nameless, such as the slave owned by the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] President [[Jefferson Davis]] who designed the ship propeller used by the Confederate navy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sluby|first=Patricia Carter|title=The Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity|year=2004|publisher=Praeger|location=Westport, Conn.|isbn=978-0-275-96674-4|pages=30–33|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wz-DTSXeLRYC&pg=PA30}}</ref>

By 1913, over 1,000 inventions were patented by Black Americans. Among the most notable inventors were [[Jan Matzeliger]], who developed the first machine to mass-produce shoes,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/matzeliger.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030302053043/http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/matzeliger.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 2, 2003|title=Jan Matzeliger|date=August 2002|publisher=[[Lemelson-MIT Program]]|access-date=January 29, 2011}}</ref> and [[Elijah McCoy]], who invented automatic lubrication devices for steam engines.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/mccoy.html|title=Elijah McCoy (1844–1929)|date=May 1996|publisher=[[Lemelson-MIT Program]]|access-date=January 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227194310/https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/mccoy.html|archive-date=December 27, 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Granville Woods]] had 35 patents to improve electric railway systems, including the first system to allow moving trains to communicate.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/woods.html|title=Granville T. Woods|date=August 1996|publisher=[[Lemelson-MIT Program]]|access-date=January 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227190714/https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/woods.html|archive-date=December 27, 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Garrett A. Morgan]] developed the first automatic traffic signal and gas mask.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/morgan.html|title=Garrett A. Morgan (1877–1963)|date=February 1997|publisher=[[Lemelson-MIT Program]]|access-date=January 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101227190804/https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/morgan.html|archive-date=December 27, 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Lewis Howard Latimer]] invented an improvement for the incandescent light bulb.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.todaysengineer.org/2004/Feb/history.asp|title=African American Heritage in Engineering|first=Michael N.|last=Geselowitz|date=February 2004|publisher=todaysengineer.org|access-date=October 7, 2010|archive-date=July 16, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716023608/http://www.todaysengineer.org/2004/Feb/history.asp|url-status=dead}}</ref> More recent inventors include [[Frederick McKinley Jones]], who invented the movable refrigeration unit for food transport in trucks and trains.<ref name=FMJones>{{cite web|url=https://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/jones.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030217213948/http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/jones.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 17, 2003|title=Frederick M. Jones (1893–1961)|publisher=[[Lemelson-MIT Program]]|access-date=January 29, 2011}}</ref> [[Lloyd Quarterman]] worked with six other Black scientists on the creation of the atomic bomb (code named the [[Manhattan Project]])<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.csupomona.edu/~nova/scientists/articles/quart.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060924200300/https://www.csupomona.edu/~nova/scientists/articles/quart.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 24, 2006|title=Lloyd Albert Quarterman|last=McConnell|first=Wendy|publisher=Project Nova, [[California State Polytechnic University, Pomona]]|access-date=January 29, 2011}}</ref> and helped develop the first nuclear reactor.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blackhistorypages.net/pages/lquarterman.php|title=Dr. Lloyd Quarterman|publisher=Black History Pages|access-date=January 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723025705/http://blackhistorypages.net/pages/lquarterman.php|archive-date=July 23, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

As part of the preservation of their culture, African Americans have continuously launched their own publications and publishing houses, such as [[Robert Sengstacke Abbott]], founder of the Chicago Defender newspaper, and [[Carter G. Woodson]], the founder of [[Black History Month]] who spent over thirty years documenting and publishing African American history in journals and books. The [[Johnson Publishing Company]], founded by [[John H. Johnson]] in 1942, is a National Historic Landmark.<ref>{{Cite web |last=History |first=Black Entrepreneur |date=2020-11-23 |title=John Warren Moutoussamy – One of Chicago's Finest High Rising Architects |url=https://blackentrepreneurhistory.com/black-history/john-warren-moutoussamy-one-of-chicagos-finest-high-rising-architects |access-date=2023-10-18 |website=Black Entrepreneur History |language=en-US}}</ref>