Born September 4, 1848 (Chelsea, Massachusetts)

Died December 11, 1928 (Flushing, New York)

Inventor

Lewis H. Latimer had an honored career as an inventor, skilled mechanical draftsperson, and patent expert. Patents are legal documents giving an inventor the exclusive right to make, use, or sell an invention for a certain term of years. Latimer worked with Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922; see entry) in preparing the drawings that were important to Bell's patent application for the telephone and spent much of his later career with the firm founded by Thomas Edison (1847–1931; see entry). Latimer's achievements were even more remarkable because he was an African American executive and technical expert in the United States before the civil rights movement, when minorities who attained such prominence were rare.