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[mollyx]

I've been off my game, man. I was supposed to keep up the Black History Month thing and got caught up in my show! And nobody calls me on it.
What do I pay you people for?
Charles Drew

Jack Johnson Yes, that Jack Johnson. First he became the first Black world heavyweight. Then he invented a wrench in 1922.

Fred Jones

Ida B. Wells Journalist,

Comments

[dry_2olives]

Wait a minute... I'm certainly no expert on Jack Johnson but I've done enough reading about him that I thought I had a pretty good sense of his life and I've never before heard about his inventing the wrench. That is amazing.

[mollyx]

Yeah. Apparently, he built it while he was in jail for carrying a white woman across state lines for lascivious reasons, i.e. being her fiance.

[minstrel70]

That's interesting about the wrench. I wonder if there's a better citation to be found, though -- the article implies that he invented both the wrench as a class of tool, not a specific type of wrench, as well as the name for said tool. Wrenches have been around for centuries. I'll agree that the adjustable wrench was a great idea, though, and one doesn't usually think of boxers being inventors, too.