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The influential 50
City Hall exhibit highlights high-tech contributions of 50 African Americans

Since the 1950s, African Americans have made their mark in every sector of information technology, including semiconductors, magnetics, VM, 3-D workstations, software and networking, according to John William Templeton, a business commentator, journalist and historian and author of books and writings on the role of African Americans in California history and technology.

In 1998, Templeton, a former editor of the San Jose Business Journal who has studied African-Americans in technology since 1992, was asked by two Silicon Valley pioneers, Roy Clay Sr. and Frank Greene Jr., to mount an exhibition of the top 20 black technologists for the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose.

Now in its ninth year, the exhibition and list, which is has expanded to 50 of the most important African Americans in technology, will be displayed at Palo Alto City Hall, starting with an opening reception on Monday at 5 p.m.

Three Palo Alto figures — two members of the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame and a late inventor — will also be recognized by the Palo Alto City Council.

The exhibition, "Soul of Technology," was created by Templeton's company, eAccess Corp. of San Francisco.

Mayor Peter Drekmeier and the Palo Alto City Council will honor Clay and Greene, along with the late Ronald L. Jones, a Palo Alto resident and business owner, who developed the raster image processor for producing large-format prints from personal computers.

A representative of Stanford's Electrical Engineering Department will also speak about the importance of Greene's semiconductor work.

In addition to the exhibit, the Ron Jones Innovation Award is awarded annually to an emerging researcher or entrepreneur.

Here is Templeton's 2009 list of the 50 most important African American technologists, including Greene and Clay:

Public policy makers

Jerry L. Davis, Deputy CIO, NASA

John Hines, director, Biomolecular Systems Research Program (BSRP) NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif.

Jack B. Johnson, Prince Georges County, MD executive

Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator

Gov. Deval Patrick, D-Mass.

Timothy A. Simon, commissioner, California Public Utilities Commission

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mo., chairman, House Homeland Security Committee

Entrepreneurs

Pauline Brooks President/CEO Management Technology Inc. Clinton, MD

Gale Burkett, CEO, GB Tech Houston

Al Edmonds, CEO, Edmonds Enterprise Services

Preston Edwards, CEO, imDiversity, New Orleans, La.

Darrell Freeman, CEO, Zycron Inc., Nashville, Tenn.

Rodney Hunt, CEO, RS Information Systems Inc., McLean, Va.

Alfred Liggins, chairman/CEO, RadioOne, Lanham, Md.

Willie Johnson, chairman, PRWT Services Inc. Philadelphia, Pa.

James Makawa, CEO, The Africa Channel, Beverly Hills, Calif.

William Moss, CEO, Moss Interactive, Columbus, Ohio

Lori Perine, senior vice president, TrueCarbon

Earl Stafford Sr., chairman, Universal Technology and Engineering

David Steward, chairman/CEO, World Wide Technology Inc., St. Louis, Mo.

James C. Smith, CEO, Systems Engineering and Management Associates, McLean, Va.

Maurice Tose, CEO, Telecommunications Systems Inc., Annapolis, Md.

Vercell Vance, CEO, Alpha Data Corp. Ft. Walton Beach, Fla.

Executives

Adriane Brown, president, Honeywell Transporation Systems, Torrence, Calif.

Ursula Burns, president, Xerox, Rochester, N.Y.

David Drummond, senior vice president corporate development, Google, Mountain View, Calif.

J.D.Harris, vice president, contracts and supply chain, Raytheon, Waltham, Mass.

Monte Ford, CIO, American Airlines

Charles Philips, president, Oracle, Redwood Shores, Calif.

John W. Thompson, chairman/CEO, Symantec Corp. Cupertino, Calif.

Ray Wilkins, president, ATT Sales and Marketing, San Antonio, Texas

Ronald E. Blaylock, Arthur H. Harper, James Shepard, Lloyd G. Trotter, general partners, GenNXT360 Capital Partners, New York, N.Y.

Educators

Deborah Auguste, assistant professor of bioengineering, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

George Campbell, president, Cooper Union, New York, N.Y.

Michael Drake, chancellor, UC-Irvine, Irvine, Calif.

Juan Gilbert, associate professor and director, Human Centered Computing Lab, Auburn University, Auburn, Ala.

Sossina Haile, professor of materials science and chemical engineering, Caltech, Pasadena, Calif.

Charles Isbell, associate professor, associate dean, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Ga.

Shirley A. Jackson, president, RPI, Troy, N.Y.

James Johnson, dean, College of Engineering, Howard University, Washington, D.C.

V. Trent Montgomery, dean, School of Engineering and Technology, Alabama A&M University, Normal, Ala.

Mark Hardy, dean, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, Jackson State University, Jackson, Miss.

Kunle Olukotun, professor of electrical engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.

Reginald Perry, assistant dean, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla.

Mark Smith, head of engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind.

Eugene Washington, provost, UCSF, San Francisco, Calif.

Carole Espy Wilson, professor, electrical engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Md.

Dhyana Ziegler, professor of journalism, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, Fla.

Source: eAccess Corp of San Francisco, John William Templeton, president/executive editor

Posted by bob johnson, a resident of another community, on Sep 10, 2009 at 11:42 am

Suggested reading

Movers and Shakers: African-American Leaders of the 20th Century

Web Link

Posted by Peter, a resident of another community, on Sep 10, 2009 at 9:11 pm

Sad that only 46 people looked at this important posting and only one person commented.

We still have a long way to go to equality in so many areas but I'm encouraged that so many African-Americans have risen so far in such important areas. Not to mention politics.

Posted by william, a resident of the Professorville neighborhood, on Sep 10, 2009 at 10:45 pm

There has been an increase in racial bigotry in this country over the past year.

Posted by Rob, a resident of Woodside, on Sep 11, 2009 at 8:18 am

I think it's kind of patronizing to pick a race and boast about the accomplishments achieved. This is old-fashioned thinking and nails us by the skin to the on going battle of race relations.

Please try to celebrate an individual for her accomplishments, not a race.

Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Sep 11, 2009 at 9:20 am

Rob

What you say makes so much sense. Most of the innovations from this country have come from immigrants of one type of another - 2nd, 3rd or 4th generation Americans. Many of these have ancestors who have suffered in their homelands before emigrating here. It makes no sense to single out ethnicity when it comes to innovation.

Posted by Peter, a resident of another community, on Sep 11, 2009 at 2:46 pm

Rob and Resident,

When one honestly looks at the terrible prejudice that African-Americans and mixed race people have faced since the first slaves were brought here in chains, I think it does make sense to celebrate those who have succeeded.

There is still vile and vicious racial hatred expressed overtly and covertly in this fair land. Consider the un-funny smears of the president by those who seek to use prejudice for political and cultural gain. There are towns and neighborhoods where only whites are welcome. There are people who continue to laud the culture of the American south – the culture that brutalized African-Americans and the courageous whites who have stood up for them. The Civil Rights Movement was not that long ago.

If you were to look honestly at the systematic denial of proper education and employment opportunities for African-Americans throughout not only the deep south but by much of the north, as well, you might come to a different conclusion.

Almost all African-Americans are instantly identifiable as such; they show their race all the time. Not true for most immigrants from European countries.

Take an honest look and then see if you can still say race shouldn’t be a factor in honoring these people. I wish with all my heart that it shouldn’t be, but at this time, in this country, it is.

Posted by svatoid, a resident of the Charleston Gardens neighborhood, on Sep 11, 2009 at 2:51 pm
svatoid is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

Wait until Rush Limabugh, Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin get a load of this list (along with their counterparts on this fourm)--they will start screaming bloody murder that white men are being discriminated against by only having African-Americans on the list

Posted by Rob, a resident of Woodside, on Sep 11, 2009 at 6:59 pm

Fact- There are 40 successful people from race x. Fact - People in race x endured tormations x, y & z. Fact- The 40 successful people from race x are from the same group that endured tormations x, y & z. Therefore, experiencing tormations x, y & z does not disqualify one from being a successful person.

In other words, drop your baggage and quit making excuses.

Posted by Peter, a resident of another community, on Sep 11, 2009 at 8:57 pm

Rob,

Fact: You're not being honest.

Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 13, 2009 at 8:23 am
Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

So, did they achieve their success because they were Black, in spite of being Black or irrelevant of skin color? In the Homebrew Computer Club, wellspring of the personal computer, there was one black, perhaps several women and a predominance of men, including two Steves and a Felsenstein, in an enrollment of several hundred.