textured hair with brushes made from animal hair. Because of this, she created a hairbrush with synthetic bristles, which were more durable and easier to clean. The design of her new hairbrush contained evenly spaced rows of bristles with open slots to clear debris away from the hair and into a recessed compartment, which made it effective for cleaning the device. The brush also had a button that when clicked, the bristle part would detach and a new one could be put in. This meant that hairdressers could now have a new brush, instead of having to clean the brush between clients. She filed for a patent for her design on July 11, 1898 and received U.S. Patent 614,335 on November 15, 1898. With this patent, Newman became the third Black woman to ever receive one. Modern hairbrushes still use Newman’s design, with the only changes being aesthetic. Lyda’s invention changed the hair-care industry, due to the fact that her design made hairbrushes less expensive, easier to manufacture, and effective to use on textured hair. Lyda Newman was also an active member and organizer for the women’s suffragette movement in the early 20th century. She worked as one of the organizers of an African American branch of the Woman Suffrage Party, which advocated to give women the legal right to vote. Newman focused on campaigning in her neighborhood in New York by canvassing in order to raise awareness and gather people to attend suffrage meetings within her voting district, and she even arranged to close down the street so that mothers could attend meetings at the suffrage center with their children and see them playing outside from the windows. She worked closely with other prominent white suffragists of the party, and was an instrumental part in the movement. She was also in charge of the Negro Suffrage Headquarters in Manhattan, a division of the Women Suffrage Party specifically for colored people. She was given this position due to her excellent work for suffrage among her own people. In 1924, seven years after women were given the right to vote, Lyda Newman was found on the 51st election drastic for New York City voter list as a registered voter. Newman’s marriage status was listed as single from 1905-1925, so it appears she never married, which was uncommon for a woman in the early 1900’s. Lyda Newman’s exact date of death is