Born on this day in 1856 to free Black parents, Ohio native Granville T. Woods became one of the best and most innovative electrical engineers the U.S. had ever seen, who owned his own business and held over 60 patents.

To learn more about Woods, read 2013’s Granville T. Woods: African American Communication and Transportation Pioneer by David L. Head, Granville Taylor Woods: The First Black American Who Was Granted Forty-Nine Patents by Jonathan Walker from 2011, and Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation: Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer, and Shelby J. Davidson ...