Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner

Last year, I wanted to transform the afterschool classroom for the kids at my job into an extremely low budget museum, exhibiting people of color they may have never heard of. February was a showcase of Black men and women who deserve more recognition for their impact on the world. For March, I got started on the next exhibit, honoring solely women, predominately women of color. The goal was for the children to get inspiration. To see that their current circumstances do not automatically determine how their lives are going to turn out. To ponder the existence of their own greatness.

The world shut down and they could not come back into their room. Their museum.

Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner was one of the special women, with a picture on the wall and a few facts beneath the photo. That snapshot of her accomplishments was insufficient.

She had a gift that she nurtured from a young age. Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner did not allow life’s disappointments to cripple her. She did not restrain or suffocate her creativity, even when her progress was stifled because her race and gender were unappealing to those in positions of power.

The most popular and essential of her inventions was the sanitary belt. WE WOULD NOT HAVE SANITARY PADS WITHOUT MARY BEATRICE DAVIDSON KENNER!! I do not want to consider living without pads. She laid the groundwork for a necessity that makes the menstrual cycle a little more bearable. The wad of toilet tissue or cloth women used before her groundbreaking sanitary belt was way too unstable for women to be comfortable. That is not an opinion, every female who has crossed the frustrating and confusing threshold of puberty has miscounted the days since the previous cycle, stepped out of the house unprepared and had to use a wad of toilet paper. There are few instances life guarantees that compare to that level of insecurity. She invented the sanitary belt in the 1920’s. This woman was born on May 17, 1912. She created something extremely vital to life as a teenage child. Monetary struggles forced her to leave Howard University after her freshman year. The grants and loans we have access to were not at her disposal. She possessed the type of determination to see her dreams realized that we all need to find a way to replicate.

She worked many different types of jobs and at the beginning of the 1940’s she got federal employment. Eventually she became a proficient florist and was able to open her own floral shop. Never releasing her hold on her passion. Her mind staying active with new ideas and reverent of her older inventions as the years progressed. As a 12-year-old girl in a new city, Washington, D.C., she frequented the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, absorbing the patent procedure on her visits. In 1957, Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner was able to pay for her first patent, which was for the sanitary belt. She had adjusted her design, the most crucial change being that the napkin area was more resistant to moisture.

A company showed real interest in promoting and selling her product however once they saw that she was Black their intrigue in the product just evaporated. A dagger that would stiffen the hope of anyone, did not impale Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner’s innovative mind or heart. She patented her creation of an extension for walkers or wheelchairs that contained a tray and pocket in 1976. She and her sister developed a toilet tissue holder that dispensed the tissue in the most accessible way for users in 1982. This is a 70-year-old woman raising 5 foster children with her husband, still taking the time to cultivate her brilliance. She purchased a patent for her design of a mounted back washer and massager for the tub/shower in 1989. Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner still maintains the record for the most patents of any African American woman, with 5 patents.

Honestly, her family is filled with noteworthy minds, whose ingenuity contributed to society. Her grandfather, Robert Phromeberger, most remarkable conceptions were wheels on a stretcher and a three-colored light signal for trains. Two years after her birth, her father, Sidney Nathaniel Davidson, got a patent for his portable clothes presser. Her sister, Mildred Davidson Austin Smith, developed her own family board game called “Family Treedition” in 1980.

Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner lived a life of importance, not only because of her 5 patents, but more-so due to her diligence and resistance to being limited. It is a shameful testament to our society that she never reaped the praise or wealth her genius warranted. This woman had no formal training and her journey as an inventor is said to have begun at the age of 6. She thought of a door hinge that would oil itself. She drew her plans for an umbrella with a sponge at the end, an ashtray connected to a cigarette pack, and a folding/detachable roof for the back of a car, all before high school.

My museum of Black excellence in February and then female magnificence in March was aimed for the betterment of the children in the program I work for, but my pride in my own Blackness and womanhood has deepened more than I thought possible. Never stop learning. Believe in your ability and your passions. Do whatever is necessary to live your life to the maximum capacity of value, in however that manifests itself for you. Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner lived to 93-years-old and what a masterful 93 years it was.