Black Business Month: Wally Amos And 10 Other Unsung Black Entrepreneurs

As many of you may already know, August marks Black Business Month. In addition to showing your support at all the local Black businesses of today, it’s also worth taking the month to brush up on the history of those who paved the way for us to even dream of sitting in the owner’s chair.

In a somber twist of fate, we lost one of the pioneering Black entrepreneurs of our culture this past Tuesday (August 13) with the late Wally Amos, original founder of Famous Amos Cookies who unfortunately never got to truly bear the fruits of his namesake brand after infamously having the sell it shortly before it was then resold for millions.

 

RELATED: Wally Amos, Founder of Famous Amos Cookies, Passes Away At 88

 

While Mr. Amos was able to bounce back slightly with The Uncle Noname’s Cookie Company (later Uncle Wally’s Muffin Company) and most recently while based in Hawaii with The Cookie Kahuna, none quite gave him the juggernaut that would’ve came for example when Keebler acquired President Baking Co., then Atlanta-based maker of Famous Amos, for a cool $450 million in 1998. Or maybe even more recently in 2019, when Nutella maker Ferrero SpA bought it for an even cooler $1.3 billion from Kellog — they bought out Keebler back in 2001 for $4.4 billion.

In comparison, 2019 saw Mr. Amos channeling the downfall of The Cookie Kahuna and a failure to get footing for his final startup, Aunt Della’s Cookies, by tapping into motivational speaking. As he ironically told Charlotte Magazine back in 2018 with an ironic sense of humor, “[Aunt Della’s] is my last company, I can tell you that for sure. Put that on my tombstone: ‘He died starting one last cookie company.’” The quote was followed by, as the outlet wrote, Wally Amos “erupting into laughter.”

 

 

We show our respect for the delectable contributions of the late Wally Amos with this special Black Business Month feature in honor of entrepreneurs of our culture, much like him, who don’t always get their flowers for changing history with their innovations. Learn something, y’all…

 

1. GEORGE CRUM — POTATO CHIPS

His legend has become so debated that it’s argued whether or not he even made claim to inventing potato chips, including documents seemingly proving the recipe existed in cookbooks throughout the early 19th century.

 

2. ALICE H. PARKER — NATURAL GAS HEATING FURNACE

Her name can be seen on many grants and awards given out in recognition of outstanding women innovators, yet you’d be surprised at how little is known about the last years of Alice H. Parker’s life. The photo commonly associated with her was even revealed to be a whole different British woman born years after her first patent was filed.

 

 

3. MARIE VAN BRITTAN BROWN  — HOME SECURITY SYSTEM

Not only did it take years for Marie Van Brittan Brown and her husband, Albert L. Brown, to get the original patent approved, they also found a hard time getting their idea manufactured. Once the media fanfare of 1969 died out the same year it began, The Browns kept innovating yet never saw the monetary benefits that helped make home security the multibillion-dollar industry it is today.

 

 

4. GARRETT MORGAN — 3-LIGHT TRAFFIC SIGNAL

Until his dying day in 1963 at 86 years old, even with declining health and being deemed functionally blind by age 66 due to glaucoma, Morgan never stopped creating.

 

 

5. FREDERICK McKINLEY JONES — REFRIGERATED TRUCKS

Even while battling lung cancer, which he would succumb to in 1961 at the age of 67, Frederick McKinley Jones never stopped innovating and filing new patents. His last came a year before his passing in February 1960 for Thermostat and the temperature control system.

 

 

6. DANIEL HALE WILLIAMS — OPEN-HEART SURGERY

For a man who used his brilliance to help keep the ailing hearts of many beating on, it feels rather unfair that he died of a stroke in relative obscurity.

 

 

7. NORBERT RILLIEUX — MULTI-EFFECT EVAPORATION (I.E. SUGAR REFINERY)

To think racism in America is what ultimately influenced Rillieux’s decision to return to France proves how much we lost as a result of senseless bigotry.

 

 

8. SARAH BOONE (NÉE MARSHALL) — MODERN IRONING BOARD

Her death came just 12 years after the patent was approved due to complications from a battle with Bright’s disease.

 

9. JAMES WEST  — ELECTRET MICROPHONE

Still inspiring today at the young age of 91 years old, we just wanted to give Mr. West his rightful flowers.

 

 

10. LISA GELOBTER  — GIFs

The next time you send a loved one your favorite cute or funny GIF photo, kind of like the one you see floating above, give a slight head nod in respect to the Queen who brought us to this current state of digital communication.

 

 

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