She Revolutionized Assistive Technology!

And it all started with her being punished in school...

Hi, readers 👋🏻

If you’re anything like me, your brain is overwhelmed and can’t process everything happening. Like… are we SERIOUSLY going to invade Greenland? I don’t want to live in a timeline where Onion headlines become real life! But, sitting in shock and awe is what they want, and the only way to counter that is action. Speaking of which, here’s a link with places to donate to in Minnesota. I know folks tend to get overwhelmed about making the “right” or “best” donation, but that will paralyze you in an indecision loop. Remember: we are all human and every bit helps.

🚨Action Alert: Rally at the EEOC on Thursday morning! 🚨

On December 29, 2025, the EEOC quietly moved to roll back important guidance on workplace harassment—without asking for public input. This guidance helps employers know how to protect workers, and pulling it puts everyone at risk.

On Thursday, January 22 the EEOC is voting to finalize this -- join The 75 Million Project for a rally at the EEOC (131 M St NE, Washington, DC 20002) at 8:45 AM to demand the EEOC vote to keep the guidance to protect all workers from harassment! Use this form to sign-up. Bring a friend, and help make our voices heard! If you can, stay for the vote itself at 10am, and bring a government-issued ID for building security.

MLK Weekend

This past week, we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Well, some of us celebrated by honoring his legacy through service. Others celebrated by cherry picking quotes for their email newsletters or Instagram stories while ignoring their actual impact on the world. 🙃 Never fear, I know readers of this newsletter are in the first category.

To keep the Eduk8tion going, I rounded up a few past issues of amazing women involved in the Civil Rights movement. Feel free to share with folks who may be interested! It’s so rare they get their flowers for the incredible work they did.

✨ Read all about Septima Poinsette Clark, often referred to as “The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.”

✨ Check out my newsletter on Georgia Gilmore, who helped fund the Civil Rights Movement through her baking prowess.

Now, on to the star of this week’s show, an incredible nurse, physiotherapist, inventor, and handwriting analyst (yes, she really did all those things and excelled at them to boot)… Bessie Blount Griffin!

Bessie Blount Griffin

Bessie Virginia Blount was born in 1914 in Hickory, Virginia. Bessie attended school at Digg’s Chapel, a one room schoolhouse built by the Black community to educate their children as well as the formerly enslaved and Native Americans. While in school, Bessie’s teacher often scolded her for, and I can’t believe I’m seriously writing this, USING HER LEFT HAND TO WRITE. The teacher would hit Bessie’s knuckles with a ruler every time she caught her writing with her left hand as a way to “correct” the behavior. This is obviously confusing behavior to a child because they are like “so, I am just learning to write, and now I have to do it with a certain hand?!”

But, Bessie took this as an opportunity to become ambidextrous, using both of her hands to write. Actually, she went above and beyond on this challenge and also learned how to write WITHOUT the use of her hands using either her mouth or her feet. This becomes important, so remember this for later (as if you could forget).

Bessie writing with her mouth!

Unfortunately, school ended for Black children at sixth grade in Bessie’s area. Her family moved to New Jersey where Bessie continued to teach herself and earned her GED. Bessie was set on becoming a nurse and obtained a nursing degree from Community Kennedy Memorial Hospital (the only Black hospital in the state at the time). While getting her nursing degree, Bessie became interested in physical therapy, which was still a relatively new profession at the time. After earning her nursing degree, she attended Panzer College of Physical Education and Hygiene (which merged with Montclair University in the late 1950s) and Union County Junior College to get her physiotherapy degree and certifications.

After obtaining her degrees, Bessie moved to New York City and began working at the Bronx Hospital. At the time, Bessie was one of the few Black physiotherapists in the United States. She incorporated her hobbies, such as a love of interpretive dance, into her treatments for her patients.

When the United States became involved in World War II, Bessie became a volunteer with the Red Cross ‘Gray Ladies.’ The Gray Ladies were non-medical volunteers who provided hospitality based services in military hospitals, such as occupational therapy and psychiatric management. Bessie was working with hundreds of patients, many of whom had become amputees during the War and needed to learn adaptive techniques to eat, write, and get dressed.

Now, remember what I said earlier about Bessie learning other methods of writing? With her feet and mouth? Well, turns out that was incredibly useful later in her career working with her patients. Bessie taught them how to use other means, such as writing with their feet, in order to achieve a similar result.

Photo Credit: Elmira Star-Gazette/Elmira Advertiser

One of Bessie’s tenets as a medical professional was to help people help themselves. While working at the hospital, her boss told her the Army had been trying and failing to invent a self-feeding apparatus for amputees. They were currently reliant on a nurse or aide feeding patients, which took up a significant amount of their time. Additionally, for many of the amputees, being fed by someone else was hard on their self-esteem and independence as many had been feeding themselves their entire lives.

Bessie decided to give inventing a device a go! She had recently taken up drawing in her spare time, which was helpful when sketching inventions. She used her talents and experiences (and her own money!!) to invent a self-feeding apparatus. It took her years to create a final prototype, using her kitchen as her workspace and often working between 1 AM - 4 AM. Her device was basically the modern-day version of a self-feeding tube, using a tube to transport food to the patient’s mouths. The patient would bite down on the tube to release food into their mouths. This allowed patients to control their own feeding as the tube didn’t constantly stream food into your mouth, you used your mouth to control the flow. While there are more modern versions now, Bessie’s was one of the first.

In addition to her self-feeding device, Bessie also invented a non-automatic food receptacle support, which used a neck support to place a cup or bowl close to a patient’s mouth. She received a patent for this invention in 1951.

Bessie’s devices revolutionized adaptive technology for amputees. When she presented her prototype in a New Jersey hospital, she received a standing ovation! Once her prototypes were complete, Bessie took it to the Veterans Administration (VA), but they had no interest. She spent years trying to get someone at the VA to take her, and her invention, seriously. However, it was ultimately rejected with claims it was not needed and “impractical.” 🙄 Pretty sure your MANY patients would disagree!!

As we know, Bessie is the queen of pivoting. When the VA refused to accept her design, she found a company to manufacture her device and gave the licensing (FOR FREE) to the French Government. They were all too happy to accept. When asked why she gave away her years of hard work for free to a foreign country, she said…

“A black woman is capable of inventing something for the benefit of mankind.” -Bessie Blount Griffin

“Forget me… It’s what we have contributed to humanity—that as a black female we can do more than nurse their babies and clean their toilets.” -Bessie Blount Griffin

Bessie became well-known in the inventor community and became great friends with Theodore M. Edison, Thomas Edison’s youngest son! She would often run ideas by him and use him as a sounding board. How cool is that!! He was also an inventor, earning 80 patents in his life.

After creating the self-feeding apparatus and non-automatic food receptacle support, Bessie created a disposable emesis basin. An emesis basin is that kidney bean shaped metal or plastic bowl medical staff use to collect bodily fluids. She created a disposable version using flour, water and newspaper. Once again, she tried to get the VA interested in her design, and they once again rejected her. 😡 So, she sold it to Belgium. A version of her invention is still used today.

As if being an amazing, talented, and prolific inventor wasn’t enough… Bessie transitioned into a new career. Throughout her physiotherapy career, she noticed how a person’s handwriting could indicate a change in physical health. She published a paper with her findings and soon started helping police departments with handwriting analysis to detect forgeries.

Blount in 1969 examining the signature on a check. She worked for several years as a forensics handwriting analyst for police departments in New Jersey and Virginia. Credit: The Daily Journal via the New York Times.

She served as the Chief Document Examiner for the Portsmouth Police Department and later worked at Scotland Yard, becoming the first Black woman to work in Document Division of the Metropolitan Police Forensic Science Laboratory. After returning to the States, she continued to consult with police organizations on forgeries and handwriting analysis as well as historical societies to decipher and verify the authenticity of historic documents. This was such a cool pivot because Bessie was in her 60s when she transitioned her career! You’re never too young!

In an interview with Bessie’s son, Philip, he said Bessie also served as an expert witness in many trials. She had an incredible way of breaking down complex ideas and theories for the jury to understand. He describes it below…

“There’s this old black woman sitting in the back row not saying anything,” he said, “and then, when the lawyer would say, ‘O.K., I have my expert witness,’ she’d stand up, throw off her coat, throw off her rain bonnet — and she was silver-haired — and then she’d stand up and present her theory. It blew them away.” -Philip (Bessie’s son) in a New York Times Interview for Bessie’s Overlook No More profile

Sadly, Bessie passed away in 2009 at the age of 95. The year prior to her passing, she visited the site of her one room schoolhouse and expressed an interest in building a museum and library in that space to commemorate the contributions of the former students and teachers. While this never came to fruition, Bessie’s impact will live forever in her inventions and spirit.

That’s all for this week. See ya next Wednesday!

-Kate

Citations

https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/bessie-blount

https://idaho.pressbooks.pub/stempioneers/chapter/bessie-blount-inventor-of-assistive-medical-devices/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/woman-who-made-device-help-disabled-veterans-feed-themselvesand-gave-it-away-free-180970321/

https://advopps.org/bessie-blount-griffin-inventing-in-the-service-of-humankind/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Blount_Griffin

https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/bessie-blount-griffin-1914-2009/

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/27/obituaries/bessie-blount-overlooked.html

https://allthatsinteresting.com/bessie-blount-griffin