Meme falsely claims a Black man invented Vicks VapoRub

Vicks VapoRub is a topical ointment that’s generally used to alleviate chilly signs.

A meme that was first posted throughout Black History Month in 2022, and shared widely on social media all year long, claimed Vicks VapoRub was invented in 1880 by a Black man from North Carolina named Lunsford Richardson. Several individuals who commented on the social posts appeared stunned to find that a Black man might have created the favored drugs.

Google Trends information from 2022 additionally shows that many individuals on-line questioned if the information within the meme was true.

Did a Black man named Lunsford Richardson invent Vicks VapoRub?  

No, a Black man named Lunsford Richardson didn’t invent Vicks VapoRub. The inventor was a white man. The man pictured within the viral meme is definitely named Lunsford Lane, a profitable Black businessman and abolitionist. 

Vicks VapoRub was not invented by a Black man named Lunsford Richardson in 1880. 

The actual Lunsford Richardson was a white pharmacist and entrepreneur who was born in Johnston County, North Carolina, in 1854. Around 1890, Richardson moved to Greensboro, the place he purchased W.C. Porter’s drug retailer along with his companion, John Fariss. 

While operating the pharmacy, Richardson started to develop new chilly cures for the Vicks Family Remedies Company, which was owned by his brother-in-law, Joshua Vick. Richardson invented Vicks Croup & Pneumonia Salve in 1894, “out of love and concern for his sick son,” the Vicks firm says on its web site. That salve is now often called Vicks VapoRub.

The Black man pictured within the viral meme is definitely Lunsford Lane. According to the National Park Service and the North Carolina History Project, Lane was a profitable businessman, writer and abolitionist who was born into slavery in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1803.

As a youngster, Lane labored within the residence of his enslaver, Sherwood Haywood, in Raleigh. During this time, he started to pursue a number of entrepreneurial ventures, akin to promoting peaches, marbles and chopped wooden, all in an effort to in the future save up sufficient cash to buy his freedom.

Eventually, with the assistance of his father, Lane began a successful tobacco business the place he bought a distinctive pipe and common tobacco mix he created to members of the North Carolina state legislature and different rich white businessmen in Raleigh.

In 1835, Lane purchased his freedom with the cash he saved up. However, as a result of rising hostility in the direction of free Blacks in North Carolina, Lane was compelled to flee to the North in 1840, abandoning his spouse, Martha, and their six youngsters, in keeping with the National Park Service. Lane briefly returned to the state to buy his household’s freedom earlier than they settled in Massachusetts.

In 1842, Lane wrote and revealed an account of his life, titled “The Narrative of Lunsford Lane,” in Boston. The e-book was well-received and sold many copies within the United States and England.

The state of North Carolina authorised a historical marker in honor of Lane’s legacy in 2018, and it was erected in Raleigh throughout the subsequent 12 months.