Sarah E. Goode

Sarah E. Goode was an entrepreneur and inventor. She was the very first African American woman to receive a United States patent. Goode was born in 1850 into slavery. She was freed after the American Civil War and proceeded to open a furniture store in Chicago, Illinois. She noticed that those who lived in apartments in the city had very little space for beds, so she invented a folding cabinet bed and received patent for it on July 14, 1885. When the cabinet bed was folded up it looked like a desk, including spaces for writing instruments and storage.