There was a time when Black people couldn’t rightfully get to develop and profit from ideas and products they invented -- but that all changed, thanks to one man. He helped pave the way in an area in which minorities were usually excluded: patents. While there have been important Black inventors throughout the course of American history, they were discriminated against when it came to receiving patents for their brilliant ideas and inventions. Jennings invented dry cleaning, a process by which clothes and textiles are cleaned using a chemical solvent instead of water. Jennings spent a portion of his business earnings to purchase his wife and children out of slavery.