Video games biography

(1940-2011)

Who Was Jerry Lawson?

Jerry Lawson pioneered home video gaming in the 1970s by helping create the Fairchild Channel F, the first home video game system with interchangeable games.

A New York native, Lawson is one of the few African American engineers who worked in computing at the dawn of the video game era.

Early Life and Education

Born in New York City on December 1, 1940, Gerald Anderson Lawson is famous for being a video game pioneer, helping develop the first cartridge-based home video game console system.

Lawson's father was a longshoreman and his mother worked for New York City. He had one brother, Michael.

Inspired as a child by the work of George Washington Carver, Lawson dabbled in electronics growing up, repairing televisions to make a little money before enrolling at Queens College, part of the City University of New York.

His interest in computing led him in the 1970s to Silicon Valley's Homebrew Computer Club, of which he was the only