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Good morning the other day I received a letter from Marshall McLuhan in answer to the birth announcement I sent him about the birth of our new son and he ended the letter with a comment that said Have you heard if Ted Thomas Edison hadn't invented the electric bulb we'd all be watching television by candlelight and we so readily as soon that Thomas Edison alone invented the electric bulb Well I think it's interesting when you can really learn about the facts to find out what really happened. That so many of these new inventions that we attribute to one man really aren't attributable to one man and that. Men work with each other with each other men of all backgrounds work with each other and I'm thinking of this because recently I met a. Poet Joseph Cox who. Has written a poem about a man named Lewis Latimer who was a citizen of New York and. I thought Mr Cox could tell us a little about Louis Latimer and how he found out about him about two years ago I was doing some research in the Sean Byrd library and Hala and I came across the name Louis holiday lot of more and then throughout the following month all the electric Bob. Which really this is the part that does allow my nation and as I continued to read that I followed he did the original drought well Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. And I continued to read and I found he was a poet musician and one of the close associates of Thomas Edison. Did you know he was in the girl I think yes I did because I was reading Negro history and I also saw the calendar that the current Federal Savings and Loan Association put out and then I knew he was a negro and I was concerned about going deeper into it has missed a lot of more gotten recognition in any way in the city yes there is P.S. fifty six and Brooklyn. Elementary school stands as a monument to his achievement. And pending before the postmaster general as the issuance of the Lewis holiday lot more stamp commemorative stamp Mr Cox has also written a poem about. Lewis Howard Latimer and I'd like to read a line about it in which he actually refers to the. Role Mr Latimer played in the invention of the electric light and in the poem it says Mr Latimer also pioneered in the electrical industry drafted original drawings for Alexander Graham Bell and countless other inventors as well invented the carbon filament for light in the process made the entire world bright supervised electrical installations in Philadelphia Montreal London and New York racial inferiority What nonsense you talk well I think it's interesting when we find out what actually happened in history and I think since Marshall McLuhan has been called the philosopher of the electronic age I'm going to write him and tell him about Mr Latimer and tell him that Mr Latimer who played such an important part in the development of our electrical system also was born as a slave in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight and later became a citizen of our city New York See you soon.