I was away spending time with family when the now-viral Montgomery Riverboat brawl occurred.
When I finally logged into social media, I saw hilarious memes of folding chairs and pictures of Louis Farrakhan clamping his hands together proudly with the words: “Black people across America watching that video today…and ya’ll know what video I’m talking about.”
But I did not know what video they were talking about.
And then I saw it, but the fight video did not draw my attention as much as a specific viral meme.
The meme identifies Nathaniel Alexander as the inventor of the folding chair, but the picture is of a different Black inventor.
The man in this picture is not Nathaniel Alexander. It is Lewis Howard Latimer who worked with Thomas Edison and helped make the light bulb possible.
Latimer is responsible for many of Edison’s patents because he worked as the original draftsman at Edison’s research laboratory.
Latimer also worked with Alexander Graham Bell on the telephone.
I cover more about Latimer in the upcoming book.
As for Alexander, he was not the first to patent the folding chair, which had already been used going as far back as ancient Egypt.
In the US, an early patent for a folding chair was by Jordan Cram in 1855.
Alexander’s invention improved the folding chair featuring a book rest which he patented in 1911.
“The purpose of my invention is to furnish a chair with a book rest or support that will be immediately placed in position when the seat of the chair is lowered…Another purpose of the invention is to provide a folding chair with a book holder and rest…”
https://www.truthorfiction.com/nathaniel-alexander-folding-chair-inventor/
Fredric Arnold also patented a folding chair in 1947.
The memes are funny, but historical context is important. A child somewhere now thinks Lewis Latimer is Nathaniel Alexander and that he invented the folding chair because it’s all over Google.
While both were Black inventors, the meme is decontextualized and could lead many astray.
Cause really, neither man invented the folding chair.
Let us do our part to ensure that we are not spreading disinformation. Black history is too rich and extensive for us to have to make anything up.
The PBS Blog 