The First Black Software Engineer in America: Race and Technology at the Dawn of the Digital Age

Speaker: Clyde Ford

Room: HC 108

Time: Sat 10:30 am – 11:55 am

Format: Hands-on Lab (90 min)

Difficulty: Introductory

Track: Education

Additional Tags: Random

Presenter Location: In-person

Experience: umpteenth time speaking

Description:

Based on the memoir *THINK BLACK* (HarperCollins, 2019), this presentation interweaves the story of the speaker’s father — the first Black software engineer in America — with the role of digital technology in enabling some of the worst human rights abuses of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The talk explores the intersection of race, computing history, and the evolution of digital systems, offering a personal and historical perspective on how technology has shaped society and the lives of those who built it.

Target Audience:

Anyone