On February 16, the African American Inventors and Inventions Exhibit and the Kotchenga Dance Company paid a visit to Penn State Behrend in honor of Black History Month. 

I had a chance to visit the African American Inventors and Inventions Exhibit and talk with the historian who curates the whole exhibit. 

Clifton Brown was able to give me a tour and explain most of the pieces he has collected over the years. 

Brown first showed me his favorite invention, the Super Soaker water gun. The Super Soaker was invented by Lonnie Johnson, an engineer from Tuskegee Alabama. 

Johnson originally developed the idea for this water gun when he was working on a new type of refrigeration system. The prototype for the super soaker consisted of PVC pipes, acrylic glass and an empty plastic soda bottle. 

The idea stuck and Johnson made billions of dollars off of his genius invention. 

While the exhibit showed many different inventions from George Washington Carver and other “well known” inventors, one invention peaked my interest. That invention was the suitcase with wheels or patent #4,094,391. 

The inventor was a woman named Debrilla M. Ratchford. She was an airline stewardess who came up with the idea to put wheels on suitcases to make them more convenient. 

She was also the one to invent the transporting hook on suitcases as well. 

The patent was granted to Ratchford on June 13, 1978, and now, suitcases without wheels are a rarity. 

While researching more into the woman who invented the suitcase, I realized how hard it was to find information on African American inventors, especially African American women inventors. 

This misinformation about who invented what is why the exhibit exists, and why curator Clifton Brown made this his career. 

Brown told me that he actually ended up on this career path as an accident. He said that he just liked to talk to people about African American inventors and inventions. One day someone approached him and told him that he should make his speeches, knowledge and the items he had into a traveling museum. 

Brown did just that. In 1998, the museum was officially opened. The museum is based in the Cleveland Ohio area even though Brown is an Alabama native. 

According to the Penn State Behrend website, “It boasts a unique collection of inventions, rare artifacts, African Art, sculptures, paintings and historical articles from Black newspapers.” 

Brown informed that the Inventors and Inventions exhibit is only one of many that he has. He said he is able to curate other exhibit’s like African Americans in the Hall of Fame and so on.

Brown said that his museum has traveled all throughout the United States and to over 150 different colleges. 

I asked Brown why he thought it was important to learn black history and he replied, “It’s not important to learn about Black history, it’s important to know everyone’s culture.” 

He also went on to say that he “does Black history 12 months out of the year.” 

To wrap up the interview, I asked Brown one last hard hitting question, why he does what he does. He said, “It’s the history that’s not in the textbooks.” He believed people deserve to know this history because history books are filled with “a lot of dead presidents and wars.” 

Also held on the same day as the traveling museum was a performance by the Kotchenga Dance Company. I was not able to attend this event, but many people who did attend raved about the Company and their performance. 

These two events were just part of Penn State Behrend’s mission to advance students’ knowledge and appreciation of Black History.