The Coder Who Hacked the Tech Industry’s Color Barrier

aerial view of silicon valley
Via flickr
Adé Hennis
January 16, 2025

“We are very sorry but we have no jobs for professional Negros.” In 1951, those words could have crushed the spirit of Roy Clay, who had just earned a degree in mathematics. But the rejection made him all the more determined.

Clay immediately taught himself how to code. Five years later, the company that had refused to hire him came crawling back, and hired him as a programmer. And although the get back was satisfying, Clark wanted more.

When HP recruited him in 1965 to build its first computer, Clay saw an opportunity to do more than innovate - he transformed. He sought out and recruited Black engineers from HBCUs, some of whom would become Silicon Valley’s top tech executives.

Clay still wasn’t done. In 1977 he started his own tech company in Silicon Valley, hiring thousands of Black employees. Silicon Valley, which had spent decades excluding Black people, was now awash in Black genius.

Roy Clay, “the godfather of Silicon Valley,” proved that we don’t need to be computer scientists to engineer a better future for our people. We carry the code for Black liberation in ourselves.

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