The height of the COVID-19 pandemic made folks aware of a very rare fact: our modern understanding of vaccines is because of an underknown man named Onesimus. Sold into slavery and gifted to a Puritan Minister, it was observed that Onesimus was unscathed by ravenous smallpox, taking the lives of colonizers in the late 1700s. Onesimus shared how in his home country on the continent of Africa, they administered an inoculation, which shielded him from the disease. This precursor to the modern-day vaccine would ultimately save countless lives through the American colonies, and that knowledge still saves lives today.

From medicine to fashion, violence, theft, and erasure have resulted in Black contributions being intentionally invisible, treating Black communities as foreigners to their own innovations. To add insult to injury, Black culture and indigenous and native ways of being—often an offspring of being and survival—are praised when others adopt and appropriate with no attribution to Black genius. Cultural Sustainability Vanguard Dominique Drakeford explores with From Chains to Links how we ensure that the current and future generations of innovators are able to make their mark—and possess it.