Beyond the specific issue of historical memory, the barriers that Mary Kenner and other Black inventors faced were embedded in the structural reality of American society in ways that are worth examining in some detail.

The first barrier was access to education.

In the era when Mary Kenner was young, the American educational system was explicitly and legally segregated in the South and effectively segregated in many parts of the North.

The schools available to Black children were, on average, dramatically less well-funded than the schools available to white children.

This did not prevent Black students from learning or from achieving at high levels — the existence of schools like Dunbar in Washington, D.C., and the universities that built on the Dunbar tradition demonstrate that Black educational institutions could be extraordinary — but it did mean that Black students had to work harder and overcome more obstacles to reach the same levels of achievement.

Education in the sciences and engineering was particularly affected by racial discrimination.