This means that the record of African American women patent holders, comprehensive as it is, probably understates the actual inventive achievement of African American women throughout history.

The women who invented things but didn’t patent them, or who patented things that don’t appear in the records we have access to, or who held patents that have been lost from the historical record — these women’s contributions are not captured in the count of five patents.

Mary Kenner’s achievement in holding five patents is real and remarkable.

It is also the visible peak of a much larger and less visible mountain of inventive work by African American women that has never been fully documented or recognized.

Howard University and the HBCU Contribution