The Little-Known Story Of Mary Kenner, The First Black American Woman To Earn Five Patents
It was a small business serving the Black community of Washington, D.C., providing her with income and with a standing in the community as a business owner.
The flower shop was not glamorous, and it was not the context in which she wanted to be primarily known.
But it was a stable foundation for a life that included the less economically stable work of invention.
The small business tradition in Black America is itself a form of innovation — the development of economic structures that functioned within and around the constraints of racial discrimination.
Mary Kenner was part of this tradition even as she was also part of the tradition of American invention, and the two traditions were not separate in her life.
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