LEARNING OUR LESSONS FROM THE PAST TO MOVE FORWARD

San Diego 4.0 Black Innovators is our way of giving long-overdue recognition to the Black builders, thinkers, and creators who shaped our region during the Second and Third Industrial Revolutions. Many of their contributions were minimized or forgotten, yet they helped anchor the growth of local transportation, education, business, and community life. This campaign brings their stories to the forefront with clarity and pride, showing how their work helped lay the foundation for the region we stand on today.

Through immersive VR worlds and real-world AR campaigns, supporters like you help make these stories visible in ways that inspire the next generation. People will not just read history. They will step inside it. They will walk through rebuilt scenes, stand beside innovators whose names deserve to be remembered, and see how their spirit carries into San Diego 4.0. Your support ensures these stories rise to the front of our shared future.

The San Diego 4.0 Black Innovators campaign honors the men and women whose work shaped the roots of our region during the First and Second Industrial Revolutions. These early builders opened doors through skill, courage, and vision at a time when their contributions were often overlooked. We are restoring a chapter of San Diego history that deserves recognition and respect. Their achievements in engineering, agriculture, and education shaped the foundation we stand on today.

This campaign highlights the innovations that propelled early San Diego forward. We showcase how Black leaders introduced new technology that strengthened local neighborhoods and guided our city into modern progress. Their impacts were practical and cultural. They helped communities learn, build, work, and trust. When people see how these innovators changed the course of local history, it strengthens a sense of belonging and pride that lasts across generations.

Your support allows San Diego to honor these builders while inviting every resident to imagine the future we can build together. By lifting the legacies of those who came before us, we help a new generation see that progress is created by real people with real courage. The Black Innovators campaign is not only a remembrance. It is an invitation to keep building a stronger and more connected San Diego for the years ahead.

As the visitor steps into the Virtual Reality World, a quiet hum of history surrounds them — a living memorial where innovation and courage intertwine. The experience opens in the late 1800s, when San Diego’s Black pioneers helped shape the region’s emerging industries. Allen Light (1870), one of the city’s earliest African American settlers and a skilled seafarer, is remembered for his work in maritime navigation and early coastal trade — foundations that helped connect frontier San Diego to wider commerce. Nearby, George Ramsey (1895), a blacksmith and craftsman, stands beside a recreated workshop, his legacy symbolizing the role of Black artisans who built the region’s early transportation and agricultural tools.

The scene shifts to the mid-20th century, where modern progress takes form. Dr. Carrol Waymon (1964), a sociologist and community innovator, is honored for advancing fair employment practices and educational access during San Diego’s rapid postwar growth. Beside him stands William E. Payne (1971), an engineer at General Dynamics, whose contributions in aerospace design during the Third Industrial Revolution represent the rise of Black excellence in science. In this immersive memorial, their stories echo across time — from hand-forged tools to computer-aided blueprints — reminding each visitor that innovation is not just invention, but perseverance turned into progress.

In this immersive memorial, their stories echo across time — from hand-forged tools to computer-aided blueprints — reminding each visitor that innovation is not just invention, but perseverance turned into progress.