2018 Black History Month.

Marjorie Stewart Joyner. (1896-1994)

She was an African American business woman. In 1916, she graduated from Molar Beauty School in Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree. The first African American to achieve this. She invented a permanent wave machine. This machine was popular in salons with African American women and white women. She helped write the first cosmetology laws for the state of Illinois, founded a sorority and fraternity, Alpha Chi Pi Omega as well as a national association for black beauticians.

Marjorie Stewart Joyner was friends with Eleanor Roosevelt, and helped found the National Council of Negro Women. In 1987 the Smithsonian Institution in Washington opened an exhibit featuring Joyner's permanent wave machine. (U.S. pat. #1,693,515)