It’s February and that’s Black History Month in this country. There is some controversy about BHM, even in the Black community. Some folks scoff at it and say, “Why do you have to a month for the Blacks?” and some say “Why do we have to limit Black History to only a month?” , “Why the shortest month of the year?” Well, when Carter G. Woodson created it, it was a week and he choose the 2nd week in February to honor Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglass. Later it was expanded to a month to honor its creator, Woodson.

Others think Black History Month only perpetuates the racial divide. Well, I disagree with this too. BHM is way to recognize great accomplishments of Black Americans, as much as I love and respect Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. he is not the only great Black American that made historical contributions to this country. For instance, without using Google can you name the 1^st Black to win the Nobel Peace Prize? And for extra credit, what was it for? Here’s a hint, it wasn’t Dr. King.

This month on CostofWork, since this is a human resources blog, I will be spotlighting little known Black Americans that made accomplishments to our everyday life. And not from ancient days, some of it is as recent as the early 2000’s.

I will not pretend to take credit for this information, most of it can be found on the internet. I have recently fallen in love with a website called “Black-Inventors.com”

The first person I want to highlight is Dr. Mark Dean; he helped to create the personal computer. Dr. Dean worked for IBM in the 80’s and still holds 3 of the original 9 patents for the personal computer.

Where would business be without the PC? You can read more here.