Oakland is known nationwide as a center for civil rights and activism. Did you know that the first American dry cleaner was an abolitionist and the first African-American to hold a patent in the United States?

Thomas Jennings (1791 – 1856) was an African-American entrepreneur, inventor, and abolitionist.

Born free in New York, Jennings worked many jobs until he found his footing as a tailor. Highly skilled and well-respected in the community, people would come from far and wide for his services. One of those services was "Dry Scouring" a method that he patented in 1821 and what we today call "Dry Cleaning." With his success as a tailor and earning from his patent, he was able to open up his own store, which became one of the largest clothing stores in New York City.

History would be proud of Thomas Jennings for his entrepreneurial and inventive success alone - especially considering that he accomplished so much as an African American years before the Civil War and Emancipation - but what makes him truly incredible is that he spent the bulk of his early earnings paying legal fees to free his wife and children from slavery. Although he was born free, his wife was not and because of that, slave owners had a legal right over the future of his children. Even after his family was legally freed, he devoted the lion's share of his time and money to abolitionism and African-American civil rights.

Thomas Jennings legacy is not just his patent or the abolitionist organizations that he helped found and fund, but also through the children that he and his wife raised. After their daughter, Elizabeth, was forcibly removed from a "whites only" streetcar in New York City, she sued the streetcar company and won in 1855. She was awarded damages for the harm that the forcible removal had caused her and the next day, the streetcar company desegregated its cars! Within 10 years, all streetcars in New York City were desegregated. For context, it wasn't until The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (100 years later) that all state and local laws requiring segregation were overturned.

So, the next time you have something dry cleaned, just remember the incredible man that invented the process and the good he did for our country.