I Can See Clearly Now: The Black History I Missed

By Albert V Guerrera

I grew up in the 60's in a small "white" town in Connecticut. Looking back, I was shocked and amazed about how much I didn't know about the racism and discrimination that Black people were facing in everyday life
We have come a long way since that time period, but we still have work to do.

I still have to wonder how much we missed by ignoring the talent, intelligence and ingenuity of the Black people.
Did you know that in 1914 Garrett Morgan had a patent on the gas mask (used in World War I), and he also invented the three light traffic signals after witnessing so many car accidents at intersections? Did you know that in the 1940's Frederick Mckinley Jones developed the refrigeration used in long haul trucks which allowed transport of food and produce for long distances? Did you know Alice Parker designed the first furnace that utilized natural gas? Did you know that Mark Dean in the 70's held more than 20 patents including the computer color monitor, leading an IBM team to produce the first gigahertz chip, and the creation of the system that allowed peripheral devices such as printers and monitors to be plugged into computers?

Thomas Edison may have invented the light bulb, but his light bulb would not last very long until Lewis Latimer in 1881 discovered that a carbon filament allowed the light bulb to last a lot longer.

Systemic racism and deliberately downplaying the contributions of Black people is one of the many reasons you probably didn't know these facts. Many educational systems even today fail to teach about the contributions made by Black inventors or teach any Black history, leading to the lack of awareness

We talk about some of the achievements that Blacks have made when we celebrate Black History Month but why don't we have a "White History Month." How can we consider the Black man an equal when we only remember and think about all the achievements Black people have made just one month each year?

I hope you will find my book educational and also enlightening but it's obvious we still have a long way to go before we consider a Black person to be equal in every way to a white man.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FND6SSQQ
• ISBN13: 9798299066647
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"