Hidden Figure: Gerald Lawson (Technology)

In the 1970s, Gerald Lawson created the first video game console with interchangeable cartridges at Fairchild Semiconductor, paving the way for the future of gaming. He died in 2011. Gerald A. Lawson, a largely self-taught engineer who became a pioneer in electronic video entertainment, creating the first home video game system with interchangeable game cartridges, died on Saturday in Mountain View, Calif. He was 70 and lived in Santa Clara, Calif.

The cause was complications of diabetes, said his wife, Catherine.

Before disc-based systems like PlayStation, Xbox and Wii transformed the video game industry, before techno-diversions like Grand Theft Auto and Madden NFL and even before Pac-Man and Donkey Kong became the obsession of millions of electronic gamers, it was Mr. Lawson who first made it possible to play a variety of video games at home.

In the mid-1970s, he was director of engineering and marketing for the newly formed video game division of Fairchild Semiconductor, and it was under his direction that the division brought to market in 1976 the Fairchild Channel F, a home console that allowed users to play different games contained on removable cartridges. Until then, home video game systems could play only games that were built into the machines themselves. Mr. Lawson’s ideas anticipated — if they did not entirely enable — a colossal international business.

Hidden Figure: Charles Lewis Reason (Education)

Charles Lewis Reason was the first African-American professor to teach at a predominately white college. Professor Reason was a proponent of Booker T. Washington’s ideal that industrial education was a means for Black liberation, but he also believed that classical education was just as necessary.

Reason was born July 21, 1818 in New York City to parents who immigrated from Haiti. A math child prodigy, Reason began teaching at the African Free School in New York at the age of 14 and saved his $25 yearly salary in order to pay tutors to continue his own education.

In 1847, Reason founded the Society for the Promotion of Education among Colored Children with abolitionist and journalist, Charles Bennett Ray. Two years later, Reason was named a professor at the Free Mission College, now known as New York Central College, in Courtland County.

Hidden Figure: Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (Science)

Williams was born in Pennsylvania and attended medical school in Chicago, where he received his M.D. in 1883. He founded the Provident Hospital in Chicago in 1891, and he performed the first successful open heart surgery in 1893.

Hidden Figure: James E. West (Technology)

James E. West invented the first practical electret microphone, which uses a charged material instead of needing a polarizing power supply. It is commonly used in cellphones, cameras and digital recorders around the world. West won the Benjamin Franklin Medal in electrical engineering from the Franklin Institute in 2010.

Hidden Figure: Jacci Gresham (Arts)

Oldest tattoo shop in the state of Louisiana. Owned by Jacci Gresham. Jacci holds a unique place in the evolving tattoo culture as one of the first African American Woman to do tattooing. Her shop, Aart Accent Tattoos & Body Piercing, is Louisiana’s oldest continuous tattoo business. As with most visitors who come to New Orleans and fall in love with the people, Jacci and her friend Ali felt the same during their visit. After losing their jobs in Michigan and drawing unemployment of $53.00 a week, the two thought New Orleans would give them a new start. Ali was already trained in tattooing and proceeded to train Jacci over a period of years in the art of tattooing and design. This life changing move down to New Orleans happened back in 1976. There were no small copiers and plastic stencils back in the 70s. Tattoos had to be hand draw then inked. Most of the clientele were bikers and military. Also few woman were tattooed unless their husbands helped and approved of the design. Once Jacci had some years of tattoo design experience completed, she traveled around the country and had some awesome tattoo designs put on her body. Back in 1979 she had Ed Hardy to tattoo a design for her wrist. As business grew so did the locations. There was the French Quarter, St. Claude 9th Ward, and also Lafayette, Louisiana. As the years moved forward and the clients grew, Jacci’s lost her beloved partner and friend Ali. After Hurricane Katrina, the St. Claude store was closed due to bad water damage. The French Quarter location was remodeled and given new life. Jacci was honored in 2011 by SalonLocators.com as a Pioneer of Female Tattoo Artists. Jacci still manages and tattoos from her New Orleans French Quarter Shop. Jacci is one the best correction and color tattoo artist in the US. When people around the world say go the Tattoo Shop across from the French Quarter they mean Jacci’s Aart Accent Tattoos.

Hidden Figure: Todd Duncan (Arts)

Born Robert Todd Duncan in Danville, Kentucky in 1903, Todd Duncan was the first African American to perform in an otherwise all-white cast in the New York City Opera’s production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.

He began his professional stage career in 1933 in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana at the Mecca Temple in New York City with the Aeolian Opera, a black opera company.  Duncan’s resounding baritone and commanding stage presence won him the role of “Porgy” in Gershwin’s 1935 Porgy and Bess. He was the personal choice of Gershwin for the role.  Following this premiere, Duncan performed his role of “Porgy” in two subsequent revivals in 1937 and 1942.

Throughout his tenure as “Porgy” Duncan played the role in over 1,600 performances. His portrayal of “Porgy” is recognized as a classic, serving as the model for subsequent singers cast in the role. During one performance of Porgy and Bess at the National Theater in 1936, however, Duncan led the cast in a protest of the theater’s policy of segregated seating.   Duncan vowed to never again perform before a segregated audience.   The National Theater eventually gave in to the cast’s demands and ended its segregation policy.

In addition to his performing career, Duncan was an accomplished music teacher. He received his bachelor’s degree from Butler University in 1925 and a master’s degree from Columbia University Teacher’s College in 1930. Duncan was on the music faculty of Howard University in Washington, D.C. from 1930 to 1945, and later taught at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Hidden Figure: Thomas L. Jennings (Technology)

A tailor in New York City, Jennings is credited with being the first African American to hold a U.S. patent. The patent, which was issued in 1821, was for a dry-cleaning process.

Hidden Figure: Patricia Bath (Science)

Born in Harlem, New York, Bath holds a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College and an M.D. from Howard University. She is a co-founder of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness. Bath is best known for her invention of the Laserphaco Probe for the treatment of cataracts. Bath is the first African American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical invention. She is best known for her invention of the Laserphaco Probe for the treatment of cataracts.

Hidden Figure: Edward Bouchet (Science)

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Edward Bouchet was the first African American to graduate (1874) from Yale College. In 1876, upon receiving his Ph.D. in physics from Yale, he became the first African American to earn a doctorate. Bouchet spent his career teaching college chemistry and physics.

Hidden Figure: Aprille Ericsson (Engineering)

Born and raised in Brooklyn, N. Y., M.I.T graduate Aprille Ericsson was the first female (and the first African-American female) to receive a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Howard University and the first African-American female to receive a Ph.D. in engineering at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Ericsson has won many awards, including the 1997 “Women in Science and Engineering” award for the best female engineer in the federal government, and she is currently the instrument manager for a proposed mission to bring dust from the Martian lower atmosphere back to Earth.

Hidden Figure: Frank S. Greene, Jr., PH.D (Technology)

Chip designer, CEO and activist inducted into Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame

Considered one of the first black technologists, Dr. Frank Greene developed high-speed computer systems in the 1960s. He also founded the software companies Technology Development Corp. and ZeroOne Systems, Inc. As a technology professional, Dr. Greene focused on developing high-speed semiconductor computer-memory systems at Fairchild Semiconductor where he was a member of the team that won the patent for the fastest chip design at that time.

He started two technology companies and later founded NewVista Capital, a venture firm with a special focus on minority- and female-headed firms. Its headquarters, now in Sunnyvale, were previously located in Mountain View and Palo Alto.  Dr. Greene also launched the GO-Positive Foundation, which offers leadership programs with “core positive values” for high school and college students.

Greene passed away on December 26, 2009 at the age of 71.