Benton, J. W.

J. W. Benton was a Kentucky native who invented a hoisting derrick. He walked to Washington, D.C., to get the patent, carrying his invention in his arms. Patent #658,939 was received October 2, 1900 [source: Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1900, GPO, p. 598]. 

For more see Kentucky's Black Heritage, by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights; Blacks in Science and Medicine, by V. O. Sammons; H. E. Baker, "The Negro in the Field of Invention," The Journal of Negro History, vol. 2, no. 1 (January 1917), p. 35; and "Derrick for hoisting heavy weights was invented by an African Inventor Benton, J.W., " African History, African Inventions, 10/19/2021 (available online at the Nyongesa Sande website).