Innovators to Celebrate During Black History Month OP-ED

by Donald Wheeler

Marie Van Brittan Brown

Library of Congress photo

Charles Drew

National Library of Medicine photo

In the ongoing celebration of Black History, we salute some unknown innovators in Health & Security as well as a late blooming comedian…

Marie Van Brittan Brown was the inventor of the security system and also the first closed circuit television, which influenced modern security systems still used today by small businesses, single family homes and offices. Brown was born in Queens, New York, on Oct. 22, 1922, and lived there until her death on Feb. 2, 1999, at age 76.

Brown’s invention was inspired by the security risk that her home faced. She worked as a nurse, and her husband, Albert, worked as an electronics technician. Their work hours were not the standard 9-to-5, and the crime rate in their neighborhood was very high. Even when the police were contacted in the event of an emergency, the response time tended to be slow. As a result, Brown looked for ways to increase her level of personal security.

Brown’s security system was comprised of peepholes, a camera, monitors, and a two-way microphone. The final element was an alarm button that could be pressed to contact the police immediately.

There was also a voice component to enable Brown to speak to the person outside. If the person was perceived to be an intruder, the police would be notified with the push of a button. If the person was a welcome or expected visitor, the door could be unlocked via remote control.

Marie and Albert Brown filed for a “Home Security System Utilizing Television Surveillance” patent on Aug. 1, 1966 and it was approved on Dec. 2, 1969. She received an award from the National Scientists Committee and an interview with The New York Times on Dec. 6, 1969.

Dr. Charles Drew was an African American surgeon who organized the first large-scale blood bank in the U.S. in the 1940s.

Born in Washington, D.C., on June 3, 1904, Drew went to Amherst College in Massachusetts on an athletic scholarship. He earned money for medical school by taking a job as athletic director, and instructor of biology and chemistry at what is now Morgan State University in Baltimore.

After medical school at McGill University in Montreal, he joined the faculty at Howard University College of Medicine in 1935.

Howard was upgrading its programs with help from the Rockefeller Foundation's General Education Board, which included appointing well-qualified white department chairs to set up and run residency programs and train Black successors. Drew’s main project was an experimental blood bank at Presbyterian, opened in August 1939. In June 1940, he received his doctorate in medical science from Columbia: the first African American to do so.

Drew returned to Howard University as assistant professor of surgery, then was called back to New York in September 1940 to direct the Blood for Britain project during World War II. He instituted uniform procedures and standards for collecting blood and processing blood plasma at the participating hospitals. When the program ended in January 1941, Drew was appointed assistant director of a pilot program for a national blood banking system, jointly sponsored by the National Research Council and the American Red Cross. Among his innovations were mobile blood donation stations, later called "bloodmobiles."

Drew died on April 1, 1950, in Burlington, NC, from injuries sustained in a car accident.

On Feb. 1, 1938, Sherman Hemsley was born in Philadelphia...and got his start in theatre in his late 20s and early 30s before being discovered by writer & creator Norman Lear in 1971...The rest is history...as he was famously known as George Jefferson in “All in the Family” & “The Jeffersons” in the 1970s & 1980s.

Donald Wheeler is vice president of information technology at the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago.