Gaming in colour: uncovering video games' black pioneers

In the 1970s, in the fledgling days of the video games industry, an engineer named Gerald "Jerry" Lawson designed one of the earliest game consoles, the Channel F, and also led the team that invented the game cartridge, a defining innovation in how games were made and sold. His son, Andersen Lawson, recalls that he was often working on gaming projects in the garage of their family home in Santa Clara, California. "There have been conversations recently about the struggles he might have had that were related to his colour," he says. "Was it difficult [for him]? But I never heard any grumblings from him. And I'm also certain that he earned his respect … My father was a person of colour and I think that would inspire young people today to jump in and help move the industry along."