Reassessing the Contributions of Black Inventors to the Golden Age of Innovation

• Michael J. Andrews ^[1] ; Jonathan T. Rothwell ^[2]
  1. [1] University of Maryland, College Park

     University of Maryland, College Park

     Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] Brookings Institution

     Brookings Institution

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Essays in economic and business history: the journal of the economic and business historical society, ISSN 0896-226X, Vol. 41, Nº. 2, 2023, págs. 1-39
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • During the Second Industrial Revolutionand subsequently, it is widely believed that Black Americanscontributed disproportionately little to the economic development of the United States, especially in comparison to European Americans and immigrants from Europe. Yet, BlackAmericanstended tolive in entirely different institutional environments than other Americans, particularly in the South under Jim Crow laws. Using a new database that matches inventors to census records, we find that patenting rates for Black Americans living in the North were very similar to patenting rates for White Americans from 1870 to 1940; in some decades and states, Northern Black patenting rates exceeded the patenting rate for WhiteAmericans. In the South, patenting rates were low for both Black and WhiteAmericans, whilepatenting rates for Northern Blackresidentswere far higher than those for Southern Whiteresidents. We additionally find that Black Americansfrom all regionswere responsible for more patents than immigrants from all but two countries (Germany and England). In total, we estimate that African Americans invented more than50,000 patents over the period.Thus, when freed of extreme political oppression, BlackAmericansdemonstrated a level of inventiveness that matched the most inventive groups in US history.