The next time you munch on a bag of delicious potato chip, you are snacking on one of the world's most popular snacks and guess what? It was invented by a black man.

George Crum was a half Native American and half African American man who lived in Saratoga Lake, New York. He worked as a chef at a restaurant at the Moon Lake Lodge resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. French Fries were very popular at this restaurant. One day on August 24,1853 Crum was doing his job, cooking and serving up food to customers, when one particular customer kept complaining about the french fries being way too thick. Eventually Crum became extremely frustrated from the rudeness and complaining so he decided to get back at the customer. Crum sliced the french fries so thin, you couldn't even pick it up with a fork, over fried them and added extra salt to it. Crum did this in hopes to annoy this customer. He then served it to the complaining customer who suprisingly loved them. This marked the day that Saratoga Chips became popular. Crum's chips were originally called Saratoga Chips and potato crunches. They were soon packaged and sold in New England. In 1860, Crum opened his own restaurant, where he placed a small basket of his famous potato chips in a basket on every table in the store. It wasn't long at all before Crum was selling his potato chips to many wealthy clients. Crum's restaurant closed around 1890 and he died in 1914 at the age of 92.

"Back in those days, African Americans were not allowed to take out patents on their inventions" says Grant-Britton, author of the textbook Holt African American History, so it was never patented. Crum didn't live long enough to see his invention become a popular grocery store item by Herman Lay begenning in 1895.

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