The flower shop would remain a constant in her life even as she continued to invent, an economic anchor that gave her the financial stability she needed to pursue patent applications and endure the long waits that characterized her inventive career.

Washington, D.C., and the World She Inhabited

Washington, D.C., in the mid-twentieth century was a city of profound contradictions.

It was the capital of a democracy that declared all men created equal while maintaining a rigidly segregated society.

It was the seat of a federal government that employed Black Americans in significant numbers while restricting them to specific jobs, specific buildings, and specific facilities.

It was a city with a large, well-organized, and politically sophisticated Black community that had developed institutions, neighborhoods, businesses, churches, schools, and civic organizations of extraordinary richness.