Sarah E Goode

Biography

She was born as Sarah Elisabeth Jacobs in 1855 in Toledo, Ohio, although she would sometimes say that she was born in Spain. Sarah Goode was the second of seven children of Oliver and Harriet Jacobs, both described in public records as mulattos. Oliver Jacobs, a native of Indiana was a carpenter. When the American Civil War ended the family moved to Chicago, Illinois where she met and married Archibald "Archie" Goode, who was originally from Wise County, Virginia; they would have six children, of whom three would live to adulthood. He described himself in the records as a "stair builder" and as an upholsterer; she opened a furniture store.

The idea for her invention came out of necessity of the times. Most people she knew lived in small homes or studios and these residents had a minimum amount of habitable space. Many of her customers complained of not having enough room to store things much less to add furniture. Goode invented a folding cabinet bed which helped people who lived in tight housing to utilize their space efficiently. When the bed was folded up, it looked like a desk, with room for storage. She received a patent for it on July 14, 1885.Her invention was the precursor to the murphy bed, which was patented in 1900. The procedures behind this invention were, at first, to create something that has never been done before. Secondly, to balance out the weight of the folding of the bed for it to be easily lifted up, folding and unfolding. Thirdly, to secure the bed on each side so that when folding the bed it would stay in its place. Lastly, she provided supplementary support to the center of the bed when it is unfolded.

At the core of this history, African-American women in general were inventing their own ideas before Sarah Goode, but the legal proof for people who created an invention were assigned to slave holders. Before the agreement of the Fourteenth Amendment, which allowed citizenship to African Americans, they were viewed as property than anything else. Due to that reason, their inventions were a property of the slave holders. Very little is known of Sarah E. Goode; it is unknown where and when she died, but her life is important in history because it opened a pathway for other African Americans to make their own inventions and be able to get patents for them.

In 2012, the Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy, a science and math-focused high school was opened in her honor on the south side of Chicago.

Sarah Goode died in Chicago in 1905 and is buried in Graceland Cemetery.