James Howard is using the past to inspire the future. He knows you’ve heard all about the Garden State’s most famous inventor, the great Thomas Edison. But what about the number of innovators whose stories have never been told? Or whose stories were suppressed, like the scores of Black inventors from around the country? Howard plans to put their stories on display in a new $27 million museum dedicated to celebrating the contributions of Black inventors both past and present.

“We’re going to begin with Ellen Eglin,” said Howard, a U.S. historian who since 2020 has led the nonprofit Black Inventors Hall of Fame. “She is a domestic servant from Washington, D. C., who in 1888 designed a clothes wringing device that revolutionized that industry. Problem was, she was afraid to get her name out there. So rather than sign the patent in her name, she gave over the rights to an agent. He went on to make millions on this device. She made $18.” Howard explained in an interview with NJ Spotlight News.

“And when asked three years later, about why she sold her patent for so little, this is what she said, ‘You know I’m Black, and if it’d been known that a colored woman designed the product, white women would not have purchased it.'”

Howard’s mission is to pay tribute to Black Americans whose inventions have had an immense impact on society, but who have been overlooked in the history books.