UNT Dallas showcases African American and Hispanic inventors in museum showcase

By Sriya Reddy When Barbara Jones, curator of African American Pioneers in STEAM exhibit, stood in front of a room of fifth-grade students from H.I. Holland Elementary, she saw what the future could look like, and she wanted to plant the seed. “Who can be an inventor,” she asked Monday. Dozens of hands shot up. “Anybody can be an inventor,” she told them. Jones is the senior manager of community relations and public affairs at Fluor Corporation, a engineering and construction firm based in Irving. Fluor partnered with UNT Dallas’ Rising Blazers, a youth mentorship program, to showcase the African American Pioneers in STEAM exhibit and its sister exhibit Hispanic Pioneers in STEAM in honor of Black History Month. The exhibit traveled throughout Houston, and UNT Dallas is its first stop in the city. The public can look at the exhibits at the UNT Dallas Innovation Center on Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Afterwards, they will move to the African American Museum from Tuesday to March 18.

From medical innovations to parts of a computer, the African American and Hispanic pioneer exhibit showcases dozens of items and replicas that were invented or improved upon by African Americans and Hispanics. Inventors such as Lonnie Johnson, the creator of the Super Soaker and Nerf Gun, and Michael Jackson, who patented anti-gravity footwear, are included in the exhibit. Kaylee Felder, 10, said she was excited to learn about Christina Jenkins, who invented the sew-in weave in the 1940s to make sure wigs are secured. Felder wants to be a business woman when she grows up and searched the exhibit to find one. “I think it’s a really wonderful exhibit because we learn a lot of different things about people,” Kaylee said. “It’s really wonderful, and I think people should come here a lot to see it.”

Torrence Robinson, president of the Fluor Foundation, said the goal of this exhibit was to show young Black and brown kids that they too can become innovators and inventors. “We all need innovators and critical thinkers to join our workforces in the future,” Robinson said. “One way to do that is to inspire the next generation. This is what the exhibits, in part do, inspire young people because they see innovators who happen to look like them.” Robinson said that there’s a struggle in encouraging young students to want to pursue STEAM career fields. He hopes that this exhibit inspires students that they can be in these industries. “What I’ve come to find out over the past 25 years being in corporate America, supporting and advocating for education is that there’s no silver bullet. We need a silver buckshot,” Robinson said. “We need a community of organizations, companies, individuals who are pulling the rope in the same direction. This is what the exhibit in partnership with UNT Dallas, and the connection with the African American Museum helps do.”

This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas- at the bottom.