Throwback Thursday!!!

Public Service Announcement:

Many restaurants around the DC area are closed today due to the National Immigration Day. The famous BusBoys and Poets will be one of the participating restaurants along with many others. If you would like to join in on this protest, please check your local listings for updates. Also on any of the social networks please use the hashtag # ADayWithoutImmigrants. 

Today for Throwback Thursday I would like to celebrate Bessie Blount Griffin (1914-2009). 

Bessie was born on November 24, 1914 in Hickory, Virginia. She always had a passion to be in the medical field when she was growing up. Her wonderful parents were Mary and William Blount. 

She initially attended Union Junior College but she left there to receive nurse training at Newark City Hospital in Newark, New Jersey.  She stayed in Jersey for a few and she attended Panzer College of Physical Education and Hygiene in East Orange, New Jersey.  After a while she left New Jersey and she ended up in Chicago studying physical therapy. 

During World War II she worked with wounded soldiers and she devised an apparatus to help amputees feed themselves. She ended up inventing an electric feeding device in 1951; the feeding tube delivered one mouthful of food at a time which is controlled by biting down on the device.  She presented her invention to the American Veterans Administration, they did not accept her invention so later on she sold it to the French government. 

After helping during the war she became the physical therapist to the mother-in-law of Theodore Edison. Her son was the famed inventor Thomas Edison. Thomas and Bessie became close friends and while she was there in his home she invented the disposable cardboard emesis basin. The basin was made out of newspaper, flour and water, which was then baked into a hard form. Bessie presented her invention to the American Veterans Administration and once again they decline it so she sold it to the Belgium government. 

In the year 1953 she appeared on the WCAU Philadelphia television show “The Big Idea". She became the first African American woman to be given such an amazing recognition, especially for an African American of that time. While she was on the show she stated that “A Black woman can invent something for the benefit of human kind". 

Bessie received many awards and honors.  The one honor which meant the most to her was being named one of the many notable Virginia Women in History. She received this honor in 2005.