Black History Month 2024: 3 Black Computer Pioneers You Should Know About

Reclaiming Narratives

The theme for this year's Black History Month theme is “Reclaiming Narratives".

The contributions of Black people have frequently been overlooked or erased completely from many different industries and technology is no exception.

Read through this article to learn about just a few of the remarkable Black professionals who changed the game in tech!

Annie Easley (1933-2011)

Annie was a computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist. She was born in Alabama and initially wanted to become a nurse or pharmacist. She later turned her attention to the world of computing and in 1955 began working as a "human computer" for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which eventually became NASA. Her duties mostly involved doing complex mathematical computations for the agency's engineers and scientists.

Even when the advent of mechanical computers threatened to make her job redundant, Annie was persistent and taught herself the programming languages FORTRAN and SOAP. She ended up developing code that was essential to the operation of NASA's Centaur rocket, as well as powering early hybrid vehicle battery technology.

Roy L. Clay Sr. (1929-2024)

Roy, who has been called "the Godfather of Silicon Valley", was born in Missouri during the Jim Crow era and faced heavy racial discrimination throughout his adolescence. Despite this, he was determined and was a high achiever at school, going on to become the first Black person to graduate from St. Louis University.

He taught himself to code and was employed as a computer programmer at an aircraft company. He then wrote software for the Energy Department at Lawrence Radiation Laboratory. Eventually, Roy was hired to lead the computer science division of Hewlett-Packard in 1965. where he developed software for the HP 2116A microcomputer. This would go on to become a key chapter in the evolution of the personal computer.

John Thompson (1959-present)

John was born to Jamaican immigrants and grew up in New York City. He was keenly interested in art, maths, and electronics and so naturally found himself drawn to computing. He majored in computer science at MIT and secured a position at entertainment company LucasFilm, where he helped to develop one of the first nonlinear video editing systems. 

John then became chief scientist for Macromedia in 1987. Here, he was responsible for the development of a range of projects but in particular, he created a scripting language called Lingo for digital content. It went on to play a huge role in things like videos, online video games, and graphics-based CD-ROMs.

There are many more Black professionals who pioneered important technology who aren't well-known - that's why it's all of our responsibilities to educate ourselves and each other so that their legacies are never forgotten.