Thomas L. Jennings

February 2026

New York, NY — More than two centuries after his birth, Thomas L. Jennings is increasingly recognized as one of America’s most influential yet historically overlooked innovators. Born free in New York City around 1791, Jennings would become the first African American in United States history to obtain a patent, earning his place in the nation’s scientific record and civil rights legacy.

Jennings secured his patent in 1821, when the U.S. Patent Office granted him exclusive rights to a breakthrough fabric‑cleaning method he called “dry scouring.” The invention, a precursor to modern dry‑cleaning systems, revolutionized garment care at a time when delicate fabrics were nearly impossible to clean without damage.

A Career Built in the Tailoring Trade

Jennings’ groundbreaking invention emerged from his everyday work. As an accomplished tailor and shop owner in Lower Manhattan, he regularly handled fine garments for elite clients. Traditional washing methods often shrank or ruined expensive fabrics, prompting Jennings to experiment with new solutions. His research led to a solvent‑based process capable of cleaning wool, silk, and other delicate materials without distortion — an innovation that quickly gained commercial success.

Though the original patent document was later destroyed in the 1836 Patent Office fire — part of the infamous lost “X‑patents”contemporary newspapers confirm its issuance, and historians credit Jennings as the first African American to legally hold a patent under U.S. law.

Using Innovation to Advance Freedom

Unlike many inventors of his time, Jennings used the wealth generated from his discovery not for personal luxury but for liberation. His wife, Elizabeth, had been born enslaved and became an indentured servant under New York’s gradual emancipation laws. Jennings used earnings from his dry‑scouring process to purchase her freedom — and later secured freedom for their children.

He then directed substantial portions of his business profits toward abolitionist causes, helping fund legal defenses, civil rights campaigns, and the operations of early Black‑led institutions. Jennings was a founding member and trustee of the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church, one of Harlem’s most influential religious and political centers.

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In 1831, he served as assistant secretary at the First Annual Convention of the People of Color in Philadelphia, a major early gathering focused on equal rights and anti‑slavery strategies.

A Family at the Heart of Civil Rights History

Jennings’ commitment to justice extended to his family. In 1854, his daughter Elizabeth Jennings Graham, a New York schoolteacher, was forcibly removed from a segregated streetcar reserved for white riders. Her father organized the community response, hired a legal team, and won a landmark case that helped end racial segregation in New York City’s public transit system.

The case became one of the earliest successful civil rights lawsuits in the nation, nearly a century before Rosa Parks.

Enduring National Legacy

Thomas L. Jennings died in 1859, six years before the abolition of slavery in the United States. But his legacy — as a scientist, entrepreneur, activist, and community builder — has grown steadily. In 2015, the **National Inventors Hall of Fame** inducted Jennings for his pioneering dry‑scouring process and his groundbreaking role as the first Black American to be awarded a U.S. patent.

Historians consider Jennings a bridge between American innovation and Black liberation: a figure who used invention not just to solve a problem, but to create opportunity for himself, his family, and future generations.

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