25 Great Black Tech Pioneers! (Complex List)
- Thread starter MYSTIC
- Start date
What about the guy who invented the cartridge-based video game console?
Gerald A. Lawson, Black Video Game Pioneer, Dies
Vintage Computing and Gaming is reporting that black video-game pioneer Gerald A. Lawson has died. Affectionately known as Jerry, Lawson was an important figure in the history of video games. He was one of the few African-American electronic engineers in Silicon Valley and led the team that created the world's first ROM cartridge-based video-game console, the Fairchild Channel F.
In a 2006 interview with Benji Edwards of Video Gaming and Computing, the Queens, N.Y., native was described as a self-taught electronics genius. Lawson's interest in technology was cultivated and inherited through the men in his life. His father was a longshoreman who bought him high-tech toys, and his grandfather was a physicist. Although his grandfather was educated, he could work only at the post office as postmaster because he was black.
After starting at an amateur radio station at age 13 in a Jamaica, Queens housing project, Lawson went on to attend Queens College and then City College of New York. He embarked on a career in technology, working for various companies including ITT, Grumman Aircraft, Federal Electric and PRD Electronics, eventually running the video-game division at Fairchild.
Lawson had first built a coin-op game in his garage that sparked a lot of controversy. People could not believe that he had done that. Fairchild approached him about doing the same for them, and the rest is history. Lawson headed the video-game division, where he met a young Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. He interviewed Wozniak for a position but didn't hire him because he didn't find him -- or Jobs, for that matter -- impressive.
In the interview, Lawson detailed his experiences with racism in the field, including people being surprised that he was a big, black man and underestimating what he was capable of accomplishing. He credits his tenacity to his mother, who he said "invented busing" by interviewing the teachers and principals at schools in New York before deciding where to send him.
He ended up going to a school that was 99 percent white, but his mother was president of the PTA. Lawson credits his mother with inspiring him to want to be something at a time when "black kids were put under an aroma of 'You can't do something.' " Lawson said that he told himself, "I want to be a scientist. I want to be something."
The International Game Developers Association honored Lawson's contribution to the field during the national conference held in March 2011. He was 70 years old.
What about the guy who invented the cartridge-based video game console?
Gerald A. Lawson, Black Video Game Pioneer, Dies
Vintage Computing and Gaming is reporting that black video-game pioneer Gerald A. Lawson has died. Affectionately known as Jerry, Lawson was an important figure in the history of video games. He was one of the few African-American electronic engineers in Silicon Valley and led the team that created the world's first ROM cartridge-based video-game console, the Fairchild Channel F.
In a 2006 interview with Benji Edwards of Video Gaming and Computing, the Queens, N.Y., native was described as a self-taught electronics genius. Lawson's interest in technology was cultivated and inherited through the men in his life. His father was a longshoreman who bought him high-tech toys, and his grandfather was a physicist. Although his grandfather was educated, he could work only at the post office as postmaster because he was black.
After starting at an amateur radio station at age 13 in a Jamaica, Queens housing project, Lawson went on to attend Queens College and then City College of New York. He embarked on a career in technology, working for various companies including ITT, Grumman Aircraft, Federal Electric and PRD Electronics, eventually running the video-game division at Fairchild.
Lawson had first built a coin-op game in his garage that sparked a lot of controversy. People could not believe that he had done that. Fairchild approached him about doing the same for them, and the rest is history. Lawson headed the video-game division, where he met a young Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. He interviewed Wozniak for a position but didn't hire him because he didn't find him -- or Jobs, for that matter -- impressive.
In the interview, Lawson detailed his experiences with racism in the field, including people being surprised that he was a big, black man and underestimating what he was capable of accomplishing. He credits his tenacity to his mother, who he said "invented busing" by interviewing the teachers and principals at schools in New York before deciding where to send him.
He ended up going to a school that was 99 percent white, but his mother was president of the PTA. Lawson credits his mother with inspiring him to want to be something at a time when "black kids were put under an aroma of 'You can't do something.' " Lawson said that he told himself, "I want to be a scientist. I want to be something."
The International Game Developers Association honored Lawson's contribution to the field during the national conference held in March 2011. He was 70 years old.
Was about to post this,I dont understand why he's never mention in the game industry.....I've been playing video game for 25 years and I never heard of him until he died....
Dr. Lloyd A. Quarterman
Dr. Lloyd Quarterman was one of six Blacks on the Manhattan Project which produced the first Atomic bomb working along side Albert Einstein.
In 1946 he was cited by the U.S. Secretary of War for "work essential to the production of the Atomic Bomb, thereby contributing to the successful conclusion of World War II."
Dr. Quarterman was born May 31, 1918, in Philadelphia. He attended St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he continued the interest in chemistry he had demonstrated from an early age. Just after he completed his bachelor's degree in 1943 he was hired by the U.S. War Department to work on the production of the atomic bomb , an assignment code-named the Manhattan Project. Originally hired as a junior chemist, he worked at both the secret underground facility at the University of Chicago and at the Columbia University laboratory in New York City; the project was spread across the country in various locations. It was his team of scientists at Columbia working with Albert Einstein which first split the atom. To do this, scientists participated in trying to isolate an isotope of uranium necessary for nuclear fission; this was Quarterman's main task during his time in New York.
After the war Quarterman worked as a member of a team of scientists, contributing to the first full-scale use of controlled nuclear energy. His team made the first reactor for Nautilus, the worlds first nuclear-powered submarine.
Last edited:
Props on this.
Please don't choose the month of February to drop knowledge about us.
Drop the knowledge year round.
Black Power
Please don't choose the month of February to drop knowledge about us.
Drop the knowledge year round.
Black Power
A Black Man, Father of the Cell Phone?
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Jesse Eugene Russell, an African-American inventor born in 1948, is an inventor who profoundly influenced the wireless communications industry. Mr. Russell was inducted into the United States’ National Academy of Engineering during the Clinton Administration for his innovative contribution to the field of Wireless Communication.
Mr. Russell studied electrical engineering at Tennessee State University and Stanford University, and is recognized internationally as an expert and inventor in the field of wireless communication for over 20 years. He played a major role in shaping the wireless communications industry direction through his leadership and innovative perspectives for standards, technologies as well as innovative new wireless service concepts.
Mr. Russell has numerous patents and continues to work on next generation broadband wireless networks, technologies and services, which is frequently referred to as 4G. He pioneered the field of digital cellular communication in the 80s through the use of high power linear amplification and low bit rate voice encoding technologies and received a patent in 1992 (US patent # 5,084,869) for his work in the area of digital cellular base station design.
Mr. Russell is currently CEO and Chairman of incNETWORKS, Inc. based in New Jersey, USA specializing in Broadband Wireless Communications Company focusing on 4th Generation (4G) Broadband Wireless Communications Technologies, Networks and Services.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Jesse Eugene Russell, an African-American inventor born in 1948, is an inventor who profoundly influenced the wireless communications industry. Mr. Russell was inducted into the United States’ National Academy of Engineering during the Clinton Administration for his innovative contribution to the field of Wireless Communication.
Mr. Russell studied electrical engineering at Tennessee State University and Stanford University, and is recognized internationally as an expert and inventor in the field of wireless communication for over 20 years. He played a major role in shaping the wireless communications industry direction through his leadership and innovative perspectives for standards, technologies as well as innovative new wireless service concepts.
Mr. Russell has numerous patents and continues to work on next generation broadband wireless networks, technologies and services, which is frequently referred to as 4G. He pioneered the field of digital cellular communication in the 80s through the use of high power linear amplification and low bit rate voice encoding technologies and received a patent in 1992 (US patent # 5,084,869) for his work in the area of digital cellular base station design.
Mr. Russell is currently CEO and Chairman of incNETWORKS, Inc. based in New Jersey, USA specializing in Broadband Wireless Communications Company focusing on 4th Generation (4G) Broadband Wireless Communications Technologies, Networks and Services.
Yes!!
great post
great post
A Black Man, Father of the Cell Phone?
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Jesse Eugene Russell, an African-American inventor born in 1948, is an inventor who profoundly influenced the wireless communications industry. Mr. Russell was inducted into the United States’ National Academy of Engineering during the Clinton Administration for his innovative contribution to the field of Wireless Communication.
Mr. Russell studied electrical engineering at Tennessee State University and Stanford University, and is recognized internationally as an expert and inventor in the field of wireless communication for over 20 years. He played a major role in shaping the wireless communications industry direction through his leadership and innovative perspectives for standards, technologies as well as innovative new wireless service concepts.
Mr. Russell has numerous patents and continues to work on next generation broadband wireless networks, technologies and services, which is frequently referred to as 4G. He pioneered the field of digital cellular communication in the 80s through the use of high power linear amplification and low bit rate voice encoding technologies and received a patent in 1992 (US patent # 5,084,869) for his work in the area of digital cellular base station design.
Mr. Russell is currently CEO and Chairman of incNETWORKS, Inc. based in New Jersey, USA specializing in Broadband Wireless Communications Company focusing on 4th Generation (4G) Broadband Wireless Communications Technologies, Networks and Services.
Jesse Eugene Russell
Let us eliminate the question mark in the title:
<s>A Black Man, Father of the Cell Phone?</s>
Jesse Russell is the inventor of digital wireless spectrum. Without digital wireless spectrum bandwidth there are no iPhones or Android systems or any modern cell phones which transmit voice & videos seamlessly at decent speeds and quality.
We live in a video age, where for most Americans if they don't see something on television or internet video then it doesn't exist and didn't happen. Sad to say, reading continues to decline in the United States; even with the advent and spreading popularity of eBooks.
The video below illuminates Black inventor Jesse Russell's tremendous achievements. Without Russell's digital spectrum invention, there is no modern cell phone capability. The video below only has been viewed a paltry 300 times. Few Americans have ever heard about Jesse Russell whose invention has made modern cellular devices possible; whereas everyone has heard of Steve Jobs of Apple computer fame whose brilliant devices would be impossible without the digital transmission system Mr.Russell invented. Watch the video and spread the youtube link; 300 views is ridiculous.
Code:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NFiwyRcphts<hr noshade color="#ff0000" size="8"></hr>
<hr noshade color="#ff0000" size="8"></hr>
Last edited:
Great Post this should've been a sticky this whole month.
Let's keep adding to it.
This thread needs to be preserved.
Similar threads
