A legacy of Inclusion
IBM begin a legacy of inclusion, widening its view of the world ahead of diversity advances yet to come in our nation's history.
1890
The U.S. Census Bureau adopts the Hollerith Punch Card, Tabulating Machine, and Sorter to compile results of the 1890 Census, reducing an almost 10-year process to two and one-half years, saving the government a whopping $5 million. Hollerith is one of three companies that will come together to eventually form IBM.
1899
The Computing Scale Company, one of three companies that will form the Computing - Tabulating - Recording Company (C-T-R) in 1911, hires Richard MacGregor, a Black employee, as well as Lilly J. Philp, Nettie A. Moore and Emma K. Manske. This occurs 10 years before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded, 36 years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and 20 years before women won the right to vote. In 1924, these four employees help inaugurate IBM's first Quarter Century Club.