Think Black: A son reflects on his father’s role in the computer revolution

In the midst of a computer age that has changed the world, or at least given us small screens to stare at for hours a day, make time for a complex origin story.

It starts in 1947. Computers weighed tons and were run with punch cards. The first coders were inventing a profession — there was no school for it.

International Business Machines (IBM) was king. Its driving force was Thomas J. Watson, a man sometimes referred to as “the world's greatest salesman.”

For some reason, Watson personally selected a young man named John Stanley Ford, trained as an accountant, to become IBM’s first black software engineer. Was it a Jackie Robinson-inspired moment? Not so much.

Our guide through this story is Clyde W. Ford, the son of John Stanley Ford. Clyde followed for a time in his father’s footsteps. Later on, through extensive study, he came to fully understand the challenges his father faced, and the dark historical web — the Holocaust, eugenics, apartheid — that accompanied, and in some ways fueled, the dawn of our data-driven times.

Clyde W. Ford is a software engineer, a chiropractor, a psychotherapist and.the author of “Think Black: A Memoir.” He spoke and took questions at Town Hall Seattle on September 22. KUOW’s Sonya Harris recorded his talk.