The Unsung Heroine Who Revolutionized Home Security: Marie Van Brittan Brown

 

In a world increasingly focused on personal safety and home security, it's easy to take for granted the sophisticated systems that protect our loved ones and belongings. But have you ever stopped to wonder who we have to thank for these innovations? The answer, surprisingly to many, lies with an extraordinary Black woman named Marie Van Brittan Brown, who, in 1966, forever change the landscape of home security.

A Nurse's Ingenuity Born from Necessity

Marie Van Brittan Brown was a nurse living in Queens, New York, during a time when crime rates were on the rise, and police response times in her neighborhood were often slow. Feeling vulnerable and unsafe in her own home, especially when she was alone at night, Brown decided to take matters into her own hands. She realized there had to be a better way to monitor her surroundings and feel secure.

Driven by this pressing need, Brown, along with her husband Albert Brown, conceived of and patented the very first home security system. This wasn't just a simple alarm; it was a groundbreaking invention that laid the foundation for virtually every modern security system we use today.

The Birth of a Revolution: How Her System Worked

Brown's ingenious system was remarkably advanced for its time. It featured:

• A set of four peepholes: These were strategically placed on her front door to offer different vantage points.

• A sliding camera: This camera could move between the peepholes, allowing the homeowner to see who was at the door from different heights.

• A monitor: The camera's feed was displayed on a television monitor inside the house, providing a visual of the visitor.

• A two-way microphone system: This allowed for verbal communication with the person outside.

• A remote-controlled door unlock button: This innovative feature allowed the resident to remotely grant access.

• An alarm button: In case of an emergency or suspicious activity, pressing this button would alert the police.

This invention, granted U.S. Patent 3,482,037 on December 2, 1969, was a precursor to modern closed-circuit television (CCTV) and integrated home security systems.

The Evolution of Home Security: From Brown's Vision to Smart Homes

Marie Van Brittan Brown's invention was truly foundational. Let's trace how security systems have evolved, building upon her initial brilliance:

• Early 1970s - 1980s: The Rise of Basic Alarm Systems: Following Brown's patent, basic alarm systems became more prevalent. These typically involved sensors on doors and windows connected to a central control panel and a siren. While effective at deterring intruders, they lacked the visual and interactive components of Brown's original design.

• 1990s: Integrating CCTV and Monitoring Services: As technology advanced, CCTV cameras became more common in commercial settings and gradually made their way into some residential applications. The emergence of professional monitoring services also added another layer of security, with alarms being routed to a central station that could dispatch authorities.

• 2000s: Wireless Technology and Remote Access: The new millennium brought significant advancements in wireless technology, making security system installation less intrusive and more flexible. Remote access via phone lines or early internet connections started to appear, allowing homeowners to arm/disarm their systems from afar.

• 2010s: The Dawn of Smart Home Security: This decade saw an explosion in smart home technology. Security systems began integrating with other smart devices like thermostats, lighting, and voice assistants. Features like high-definition cameras with night vision, motion detection, cloud storage, and smartphone app control became standard.

• Today: AI, Facial Recognition, and Comprehensive Integration: Modern home security systems are incredibly sophisticated. They often incorporate artificial intelligence for advanced analytics, facial recognition to distinguish residents from strangers, and seamless integration with entire smart home ecosystems. From video doorbells to drone surveillance, the options for home security are vast and continuously evolving.

The Lasting Legacy

Marie Van Brittan Brown's original patent is still cited in many modern security patents, a testament to the enduring impact of her vision. Thanks to her foresight and determination, we can all feel a greater sense of safety and control over our personal spaces. Her story is a powerful reminder of the often-overlooked contributions of Black inventors and the profound impact that ingenuity, born from a simple need, can have on the world.

Next time you check your security camera feed or arm your alarm system, take a moment to remember Marie Van Brittan Brown – the unsung heroine who made our homes safer, one innovative idea at a time.

Sources:

• United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO): Patent Number 3,482,037 (Home Security System Utilizing Television Surveillance)

• National Inventors Hall of Fame: Marie Van Brittan Brown (While not yet inducted, her story is widely recognized by inventor advocacy groups and historical societies.)

• Various historical and technological articles on the evolution of home security. (Specific articles can be found by searching for "history of home security systems" and "Marie Van Brittan Brown invention.")

The Unfinished Revolution: How Africa’s Assassinated Leaders Ignited the Diaspora

 

A recent viral video circulates a somber roll call: Patrice Lumumba. Thomas Sankara. Chris Hani. Amílcar Cabral.

For a casual viewer, this is a history lesson—a list of African heads of state and revolutionaries whose lives were cut short by assassination. But for the African Diaspora, this is not just a list of names; it is a family tree of resistance.

While these leaders fought for the liberation of the Congo, Burkina Faso, or South Africa, their influence defied borders. Their defiance against imperialism provided a blueprint for Black Power movements in the United States, anti-colonial struggles in the Caribbean, and cultural awakenings in Europe. They proved that the fight for Black liberation was not local, but global.

Here is how the lives—and deaths—of these African revolutionaries shaped the identity, politics, and soul of the Diaspora.

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1. The Global Martyr: Patrice Lumumba (DRC)

Assassinated: 1961

When Patrice Lumumba was executed in 1961, the shockwaves were felt far beyond the Congo. In New York City, Black activists stormed the United Nations in protest—a watershed moment that explicitly linked the Civil Rights Movement in the US to the anti-colonial struggle in Africa.

Lumumba became an instant martyr for the Diaspora. He symbolized the terrifying lengths to which imperial powers would go to silence Black autonomy. His death radicalized a generation of activists; Malcolm X frequently cited Lumumba, calling him "the greatest Black man who ever walked the African continent" for his refusal to compromise.

• The Diaspora Legacy: Lumumba’s execution signaled to Black Americans and Caribbeans that their fight for civil rights was part of a global war against white supremacy.

• Source: “Sold to Africa”: Remembering Patrice Lumumba

2. The Intellectual Bridge: Amílcar Cabral & Eduardo Mondlane

Assassinated: 1973 (Cabral) & 1969 (Mondlane)

Liberation isn't just about guns; it's about ideas. Amílcar Cabral (Guinea-Bissau) and Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique) were warrior-intellectuals whose theories are still studied in Black Studies departments from London to Brazil.

Mondlane, who taught at Syracuse University in New York, physically bridged the gap between American academia and African warfare. Cabral, meanwhile, famously engaged directly with the Diaspora, speaking to Black organizations in Harlem. He distinguished between "brothers" (shared ancestry) and "comrades" (shared political struggle), giving the Diaspora a theoretical framework to understand their own identity as a weapon of resistance.

• The Diaspora Legacy: They internationalized the Black Power movement, turning it from a plea for inclusion into a demand for systemic change.

• Source: Amílcar Cabral on the African and Black American Experience

3. The Icon of Integrity: Thomas Sankara (Burkina Faso)

Assassinated: 1987

Thomas Sankara is often called "Africa's Che Guevara," but for many young Pan-Africanists in the Diaspora today, he stands alone.

Sankara’s rejection of foreign aid ("He who feeds you, controls you") mirrored the "Do For Self" philosophy of Black American leaders like Marcus Garvey. His assassination was not just a political coup; it was viewed by the Diaspora as the murder of a possibility—the proof that an African nation could be self-sufficient and fiercely independent without Western oversight.

• The Diaspora Legacy: In the digital age, Sankara has found new life. His speeches on women’s rights and environmentalism are viral content for Black millennials and Gen Z in the West, serving as a modern blueprint for progressive Black politics.

• Source: Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man

4. The Dangerous Hope: Chris Hani (South Africa)

Assassinated: 1993

While Nelson Mandela is the global face of peace, Chris Hani was the face of economic justice. As the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, Hani represented the uncompromised demand for land and resources, not just voting rights.

His assassination in 1993, on the eve of democracy, nearly ignited a civil war. For the Diaspora, particularly those involved in radical politics in the UK and US, Hani represented the "road not taken"—a focus on the redistribution of wealth that remains the central conversation in discussions about reparations today.

• The Diaspora Legacy: Hani remains a symbol of the unfinished work of liberation—the reminder that political freedom without economic power is incomplete.

• Source: The Life and Death of Chris Hani

5. The Spiritual Anchor: Haile Selassie (Ethiopia)

Assassinated: 1975

While his political legacy in Ethiopia is complex, Haile Selassie’s impact on the Caribbean Diaspora is theological and absolute. As the defining figure of Rastafarianism, he provided a spiritual anchor for descendants of enslaved Africans in Jamaica who had been stripped of their history.

For the Rastafari movement, Selassie was not just a king; he was a messiah. His 1966 visit to Jamaica remains one of the most significant cultural events in Caribbean history.

• The Diaspora Legacy: Through Reggae music, Selassie’s image carried the message of Pan-Africanism to the entire world, influencing everyone from Bob Marley to modern hip-hop culture.

• Source: Emperor Haile Selassie, God of the Rastafarians

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Conclusion: The Bullet and the Seed

The assassination of these leaders was an attempt to kill an idea. However, history shows that these bullets often had the opposite effect. They turned men into myths and local struggles into global causes.

Today, when a young person in the Diaspora wears a t-shirt with Sankara’s face, quotes Lumumba, or listens to Reggae praising Selassie, they are proving a vital truth: The revolutionaries were silenced, but the revolution remains loud.

Quote of the Day: Frederick Douglass

 

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

—Frederick Douglass, 1857

A Learned Position: Wendell Pierce on the Historical Roots of American Violence

 

In a powerful clip from 2014 that remains distressingly relevant today, actor Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Treme) dissects the concept of "American violence." Speaking on a panel, Pierce dismantles the idea that contemporary societal violence is a new phenomenon or an anomaly. Instead, he argues that it is a "learned position," deeply rooted in the historical tactics used by white settlers and institutions to maintain dominance over Black and Indigenous peoples.

Pierce’s commentary is a necessary corrective to historical amnesia. By citing specific, brutal examples, he forces a confrontation with the uncomfortable truth that violence has been a foundational tool for control and resource extraction in American history.

The Theater of Terror: Pointe Coupée

Pierce begins by mentioning the Pointe Coupée slave conspiracy of 1795 in his home state of Louisiana. Following a failed insurrection attempt, authorities responded with performative brutality designed to terrorize the enslaved population into submission.

As historical records confirm, the leaders of the conspiracy were executed, and their heads were severed and placed on posts along the Mississippi River as a gruesome warning to others. Pierce uses this example to illustrate that extreme violence was not accidental; it was a calculated policy aimed at crushing resistance and maintaining the institution of chattel slavery.

Medical Dehumanization: The Tuskegee Experiment

Shifting from physical terror to institutional callousness, Pierce brings up the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932–1972). In this infamous study conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service, hundreds of Black men with syphilis were misled into believing they were receiving free health care.

Even after penicillin became the standard cure in the 1940s, researchers withheld treatment to observe the "natural progression" of the disease until death. Pierce poignantly describes this as watching "the pathology of how they die." This example highlights a form of violence that is bureaucratic and clinical, born from a dehumanizing worldview that saw Black subjects not as patients deserving care, but as lab rats for observation.

The Calculus of Genocide: The Trail of Tears

Finally, Pierce addresses the devastation wrought upon Native Americans, referencing the "Trail of Tears" and the infamous "smallpox blankets." While historians debate the extent and frequency of deliberately infecting blankets with smallpox (the most documented incident occurred at Fort Pitt in 1763, prior to the Trail of Tears era of the 1830s), Pierce’s underlying point regarding the intent of these policies is sound.

The forced relocation of Native American nations was a campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at land seizure. Whether through direct warfare, forced marches under lethal conditions, or the fostering of disease, the ultimate goal was, as Pierce states, "to eliminate their population so we can take all of that land." The violence was a means to an economic end.

Conclusion

Wendell Pierce’s thesis is challenging but essential: the violence we see today is not a glitch in the system, but an inheritance. It is behavior that has been modeled through centuries of policy and practice. By confronting these historical truths—the beheadings, the medical neglect, the calculated displacement—we can begin to understand that American violence is indeed a "learned position," brought here and perfected over centuries. We have to remember, so that we can finally begin to unlearn it.

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Sources:

1. Pointe Coupée Conspiracy (1795): Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo. Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Louisiana State University Press, 1992. (Details the conspiracy and the brutal aftermath of executions and decapitations).

2. Tuskegee Syphilis Study: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "The U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee." (Confirming the timeline of 1932-1972 and the withholding of penicillin to observe the disease's progression).

3. Smallpox Blankets & Indian Removal: Fenn, Elizabeth A. "Biological Warfare in Eighteenth-Century North America: Beyond Jeffery Amherst." The Journal of American History, vol. 86, no. 4, 2000, pp. 1552–1580. (Discusses the documented use of smallpox blankets at Fort Pitt and the broader devastation of disease during colonization).

Black History Month 2026 - Day One