Robinson, Robert Nathaniel

1906-1994 · Contribution: 1930-1974

Industrial & Mechanical

Worked as a toolmaker and mechanical engineer across a remarkable 44-year career spanning Ford Motor Company's Detroit plant and, later, major Soviet industrial facilities including the Stalingrad Tractor Plant and Moscow's First State Ball Bearing Plant, where he submitted dozens of proposals to improve tool-production methods

Industrial & Mechanical: collage image
Industrial & Mechanical

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Quick facts

Born
1906-1994
Active since
1930-1974
Category
Industrial & Mechanical

Impact on the world

Robinson's extraordinary career exposed a painful truth: a Black engineer could find professional recognition inside Stalin's USSR that Jim Crow America denied him at home.

An alternative history

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Sources

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