Video 4: Lonnie Johnson (The Super Soaker)
What if I told you that one of the best-selling toys in American history — a toy that has generated over a billion dollars — was invented by accident, in a bathroom, by a man who built rockets for NASA? That man is Lonnie Johnson. And his story is one of the most overlooked, most underrated, and most inspiring stories in modern American history. Lonnie Johnson grew up in Mobile, Alabama, in the 1950s. From the very beginning, it was clear this kid was different. While most children his age were outside playing, Lonnie was inside tinkering. He built his own go-kart engine from scratch at age thirteen. Not from a kit. Not from instructions. From scratch. His parents were not engineers. His neighborhood was not a hub of scientific innovation. But none of that stopped him. Growing up Black in the deep South during that era meant facing barriers that had nothing to do with your ability. Lonnie experienced that firsthand. But he refused to let the world around him define...
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