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[[top - drawing of three men in old-fashioned dress, perhaps Bell, Watson and Latimer]]

The Bell System. 100 years of teamwork.

It was on March 10, 1976 that Alexander Graham Bell spoke those famous first words into what would become his new invention, the telephone: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you." Almost everyone knows about that. 

However few people know that Lewis H. Latimer, a Black man, was also part of the Bell team. Latimer, an engineer and draftsman, was well as an inventor in his own right, executed the drawings and helped prepare the applications for some of Bell's many and various telephone patents.

A man of talent and skill, Latimer later went on to become one of Edison's Pioneers, a group of inventors who worked with Thomas A. Edison.

From the beginning, Latimer and other Blacks made significant contributions to the development of the telephone system.

And today, as the nation begins to celebrate its bicentennial and the Bell System its centennial, it is fitting to note that Black men and women continue to be important members of the Bell team.

[[bottom photo of a white woman and a black man in modern dress and hard hats looking at a large sheet of paper with a diagram]]

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