The Testimony of William Hunter Dammond: The First African American Graduate of the University of Pittsburgh.

To pursue a passion furnishes the drive to carry a work-in-progress to completion. History however, shows recognition sometimes can be slow in coming. Up until recent times few African American inventors received recognition, "when in fact, Blacks were giants who contributed tremendously to the world." [i] As late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century African Americans acquired the capacity to tinker purposefully, taking things apart and putting them together again, they picked up valuable mechanical skills adding to our nation's wealth. [ii] The first African American graduate of the Western University of Pennsylvania (University of Pittsburgh), William Hunter Dammond (1873-1956), was an inventor with several "important patents in operation." [iii] The technological revolution of the nineteenth century initiated an era in which all people could not only realize the benefits of advancement but also make meaningful contributions.