Lisa Fraser | Black Enterprise
That plastic garbage can you use to take out the trash, the sewing machine your grandmother cherished, the portable hair dryer, and the iconic orange View-Master, a precursor toy to virtual reality that allowed kids to see images in 3-D, were all designed by Charles “Chuck” Harrison, a black industrial designer and Louisiana native, who passed away at the age of 87 on Dec. 2, 2018.
Harrison, a dyslexic kid from the segregated South who went on to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology, quickly earned himself the reputation of a prolific designer and innovator—but although many Americans have used his products, many don’t know his name.
