Granville T. Woods, BOMA Minute

The whole world agrees that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. But very few know that it was an American of African descent that improved the device for public consumption and gave him the idea in the first place. On this day April 7, 1885 - patent #315,368 “Apparatus For Transmission of Messages By Electricity” was awarded to Granville T. Woods by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Five months before that on December 2, 1884 he patented the “Telephone Transmitter” Patent #308,876

The History Channel website says “ …In March of 1876, 29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his revolutionary new invention, the telephone.” No where in the history books have I found a mention of Granville T. Woods, nor his improvements to the Telephone or the Telegraph. There are more than 8 billion cellphones in use today, more phones than people and what’s sad about it is that none of us could have ever placed a call if it weren’t Mr. Woods.

Let the record reflect that not only has our labor been stolen but also our brilliant ideas. This has been another Breath of My Ancestors Minute brought to you by the Institute of Radical Reconciliation… #WeMustNeverForget