Commentary: Black Scientists, Explorers, and Inventors
By dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
Sometimes the greatest inventions are those which simplify necessary tasks. Such is the case with Jan Matzeliger – the man who made it possible for ordinary citizens to purchase shoes.
Jan Matzeliger (September 15, 1852 – August 24, 1889) was born in Dutch Guiana (now known as Surinam) in South America. His father was a Dutch engineer and his mother was born in Dutch Guiana and was of African ancestry. His father had been sent to Surinam by the Dutch government to oversee colonial work in the South American country.
At an early age, Jan showed a remarkable ability to repair complex machinery and often did so when accompanying his father to a factory. When he turned 19, he decided to venture away from home to explore other parts of the world. For two years he worked aboard an East Indian merchant ship and was able to visit several countries. In 1873, Jan decided to stay in the United States for a while, landing in Pennsylvania. Although he spoke very little English, he was befriended by some Black residents who were active in a local church and took pity on him. Because he was good with his hands and mechanically inclined, he was able to get small jobs in order to earn a living.
At some point he began working for a cobbler and became interested in the making of shoes. At that time more than half of the shoes produced in the United States came from the small town of Lynn, Massachusetts. It was during a visit to Lynn I saw a small plague honoring him and I became curious about who he was.
Jan at this time in his life was unable to speak more than rudimentary English. Due to this language gap Matzeliger had a difficult time finding work in Lynn. But after some time, he was able to begin working as an apprentice in a shoe factory.
At the factory, Jan operated a McKay sole-sewing machine which was used to attached different parts of a shoe together. Unfortunately, at the time, no machines existed that could attach the upper part of a shoe to its sole. Therefor, attaching the upper part of a shoe to the sole had to be done solely by hand.
The people who were able to sew the parts of the shoe together were called "hand lasters" and expert ones were only able to produce about 50 pairs of shoes in a 10 hour workday. Thee hand-lasters were held in high esteem and were able to charge a premium for their services, especially after they banded together and formed a union called the Company of Shoemakers. Because the hand lasters were able to charge so much money, a pair of shoes was very expensive to purchase.
Hand lasters were confident that they would continue to be able to demand high sums of money for their services. One renoun lasting wrote "… no matter if the sewing machine is a wonderful machine. No man can build a machine that will last shoes and take away the job of the laster, unless he can make a machine that has fingers like a laster – and that is impossible."
But Jan Matzeliger decided they were wrong. Working from his small shop, Jan created the first practical workable automated lasting machine. Jan obtained a patent for his invention of an automated shoe laster in 1883.
Before his invention a skilled hand laster could produce 50 pairs in a ten-hour day. Matzeliger's machine could produce between 150 and 700 pairs of shoes a day, cutting shoe prices across the nation in half.
Matzeliger's invention was perhaps "the most important invention for New England" and "the greatest forward step in the shoe industry," according to the church bulletin of The First Church of Christ (where he was a member) as part of a commemoration held in 1967 in his honor.
Professional lasters (especially in the Company of Shoemakers Union) and many others in the white community, reacted negatively to this praise. Contemporaries in the shoe and apparel industry started referred to him as the "Dutch n*gger" and his machine as the "n*ggerhead laster," a term used in the widely in the apparel industry at the time.
Unfortunately Jan Matzeliger suffered an early death in Lynn, Massachusetts from tuberculosis before he saw the full profits from his invention. Matzeliger died on August 24, 1889, at aged 36.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Medical schools are the latest private institutions grappling with President Donald Trump's pressure campaign to shutter DEI programs, for example putting at risk six scholarships worth about $4 million established by Black doctors in Cincinnati. The Washington Post: Trump DEI policies threaten millions in scholarships raised by Black doctors
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It took Kenneth Davis and his wife more than 20 years to raise the $1.4 million endowment they established for Black medical students entering the University of Cincinnati.
Davis had spent 36 years as the only Black general surgeon in Cincinnati before retiring in 2020. Now, according to the Cincinnati Medical Association, which represents Black doctors in the city, there are none. The scholarship, Davis hoped, would help grow the minuscule ranks of Black doctors in the region.
The endowment is now one of many across the country caught in the Trump administration’s campaign to dismantle federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs in Washington and pressuring corporations and universities to pull back from such efforts nationwide. The University of Cincinnati wants to make all students eligible for Davis’s scholarship, not just Black applicants. At least six other scholarships worth about $4 million established by Black doctors at the school are also under review, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post.
“This isn’t about fairness or equality,” Davis said. “This is about life and death. We have a severe shortage of Black doctors in this city, and Black people here can’t find culturally competent physicians who understand them.”
As the Trump administration’s attacks on DEI have ramped up, universities across the country have started reevaluating their race-based scholarships, including the University of Alabama at Birmingham which is ending a scholarship for high-performing Black medical students established by the family of the city’s first Black general surgeon to be certified by the American Medical Association.
Some of the doctors in Cincinnati who established scholarships are fighting the changes, arguing that they were already struggling to hold onto the inroads they have made to address racial disparities in medicine and worry all progress will be lost. The percentage of doctors who were Black has nearly doubled over the past few decades, but medical school enrollment faltered after the 2023 Supreme Court decision banning the use of race in college admissions
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Slowly and carefully, Betina, who came from Haiti to Ohio in 2021, navigates a Toyota SUV between five traffic cones in a parking lot north-west of Springfield.
Betina, who works for a produce processing company, has never driven before. But now, four years into life in Springfield, she has grasped the challenge of learning to drive.
“I live close to my job, so driving is not that big a deal,” she says.
“But I’m taking these classes because when I want to go to Columbus or Dayton, I can drive myself there.”
Sitting in the passenger seat is driving instructor Josue Pierre, who came to Springfield two years ago, calmly delivering guidance in Haitian Creole.
“Many Haitians had been complaining that when they took the driving test and failed, they were then sent to take the abbreviated adult driver training online, but most of them don’t speak English,” Pierre says later.
“By doing the in-person course with the help of a Creole speaker, that helped them a lot.”
For years, longtime Springfield residents have shown up at city council meetings to complain to authorities about how Haitian drivers were allegedly driving dangerously around the town. Stories emerged of people, allegedly Haitians, accidentally driving into church buildings. Others were blamed for accidents causing deaths and at one point last year, as many as 2,300 Haitians were thought to be driving without licenses in Springfield’s Clark county.
Jean-Michel Gisnel cries out while praying with other congregants at the First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield, Sunday, January 26, 2025, in Springfield, Ohio. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao)
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Dr. Cornel West will be the keynote speaker at Morehouse College's commencement. This alum believes that's a bad idea. NEWS ONE: Dear Old Morehouse: Can We Not With Cornel West?
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Let me start by saying that I did not want to write this.
There was a time when the name Cornel West meant something to me. To many of us, in fact. There was a time when he was one of the sharpest moral minds in the public square; a philosophical firebrand who challenged systems, elevated Black radical thought, and demanded the world reckon with justice, truth, and dignity. That time was real, but unfortunately, that time has passed.
And yet, in 2025, somehow Dr. West will take the stage as the commencement speaker at Morehouse College, my esteemed alma mater. I say this not with anger, but with disappointment.
As a Morehouse man, I believe in the sanctity of our traditions, especially our commencement. That stage is a sacred one, a place for celebrating the triumph, vision, and integrity of these young Black men before they’re loosed upon a hostile world. It should not be used for reputation rehab — certainly not for men who have spent the last 20 years abandoning the very values they once claimed to champion.
This isn’t about politics. This is about priorities.
Cornel West has, for the better part of two decades, chosen celebrity over community. From his infamous spoken word album to his media appearances alongside Bill Maher and Tucker Carlson, Dr. West has steadily transformed himself from a scholar of the people to a caricature of one. It’s only appropriate that I mention Matrix Reloaded here. It wasn’t his fault, but it doesn’t help his case.
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Voters in Omaha, Nebraska, elected Democrat John Ewing Jr. as their next mayor in an upset election that denied incumbent Republican Mayor Jean Stothert a historic fourth term. Ewing will serve as Omaha’s first Black mayor.
“It feels amazing,” Ewing told local TV station KETV after the historic victory Tuesday night. During his victory speech, the mayor-elect promised to fulfill his campaign promises to address public safety, affordable housing, and access to a livable wage in Omaha.
“Thank you for placing your trust in me to lead our city into a brighter future. This victory is not mine alone. It belongs to every resident of the city of Omaha,” he told supporters.
Ewing’s election is significant not only because of its historic nature but also because of Nebraska’s strong conservative hold. Omaha is one of the few voting areas in the state where Democrats have a shot at winning elected office.
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Guyanese soldiers have come under attack three times in 24 hours in an oil-rich border region also claimed by neighboring Venezuela, which says it will hold elections there this month. Armed men in civilian clothing carried out three separate attacks on troops conducting patrols on the Cuyuní River in the disputed Essequibo region, the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) said.
“On each occasion, the Guyana Defense Force executed a measured response, and no rank sustained any injuries,” said a statement on Thursday. The GDF vowed it will “continue to respond to acts of aggression along the Guyana-Venezuela border”.
Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to around 125,000 of its more than 800,000 citizens.
Guyana has administered the region for decades, and insists Essequibo’s frontiers were determined by an arbitration panel in 1899. Venezuela claims the Essequibo River to the region’s east forms a natural border that has been recognized as far back as 1777.
The long-running squabble was revived in 2015 after US energy giant ExxonMobil discovered huge crude reserves in Essequibo and reached fever pitch in 2023 when Georgetown started auctioning off oil blocks in the region.
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