Product designer

A "dyslexic kid from the segregated South," who became Sears' first black executive back in 1961, passed away this month.

"Sears hired him to join the product design and testing laboratory after his application to work for the company was denied a few years prior, all on the sole purpose of his race. From there, the rest is black history."

Charles Harrison worked on over 700 products including baby cribs, see-through measuring cups, trash cans, sewing machines, electric mixers, etc.

He  "became the first African American designer awarded the Lifetime Achievement National Design Award by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, a recognition that cemented him as a respected icon of industrial design and an unsung hero of household products."

photo: blackenterprise