Maxwell Frost: “it is once again an honor for me to take part in this Special Order for African-American History Month. I know I join…”

“it is once again an honor for me to take part in this Special Order for African-American History Month. I know I join with every American in this continuing effort to educate both ourselves and our children about African-American culture and history. One of the most underappreciated segments of American history are the scientific achievements by African-Americans. For the past one hundred years, African-Americans have made crucial inventions in engineering, performed great scientific feats, and have served as inspirations to all Americans through their perseverance and determination, yet such accomplishments go widely unnoticed. One of those inventors was Granville Woods. Mr. Woods was a great electrician and inventive genius who developed and patented a system for overhead electric conducting lines for railroads, which aided in the development of the overhead railroad system found in contemporary metropolitan cities such as Chicago, St. Louis and New York City. As well, in the late 1800's Woods patented the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, which allowed train stations as well as moving trains to know each others whereabouts. Train accidents and collisions were causing great concern at the time because train stations had no way of tracking their moving trains. This invention made train movements quicker and prevented countless accidents and collisions.”