GBN’s Daily Drop: Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner – Inventor of the Sanitary Belt (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Friday, March 4 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022, about inventor Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner who, along with the sanitary belt, patented her creations of a serving tray attachment for walkers, a wall-mountable back washer and an accessible toilet paper holder:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this is Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Friday, March 4th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing. It’s in the category for Black Inventors we call “You Know We Did That, Right?”

Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner was determined to help women everywhere when she invented and patented an adjustable sanitary belt with an in-built, moisture-proof napkin pocket in 1956. When a company showed interest in licensing her design, they quickly reversed course after discovering that Kenner was Black.

Then once Kenner’s patent expired, her design became public domain and she never got paid for it. But still determined to make a difference, Mary and her sister Mildred, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, invented a serving tray attachment for walkers, a mountable back washer, and an accessible toilet tissue holder – earning four more patents for her life-enhancing creations.

To learn more about Kenner, check out Marc Lamont Hill’s video segment on BNC News about her as well as links to other sources provided in today’s show notes and in the episode’s full transcript [posted] on goodblacknews.org.

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.

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Sources:

• https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/mary-beatrice-davidson-kenner
• https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/blog/happy-birthday-mary-kenner/
• https://www.vice.com/en/article/mb5yap/mary-beatrice-davidson-kenner-sanitary-belt?fbclid=IwAR3x1M_A-sasjlXjIIhq36PCOHaL42OgpvXQfdz-yeS5CfLva590iIYVyq4
• https://goodblacknews.org/2020/02/05/bhm-mary-beatrice-davidson-kenner-the-forgotten-inventor-who-revolutionized-menstrual-pads/