It can get lonely being the only Black person in a corporate legal department. Deere & Co. product and sales training manager and in-house lawyer Ron Edwards wanted to change that. So Edwards leveraged video conferencing platforms to grow 8447, a network of Black male professionals from the Des Moines, Iowa, area that speaks freely and shares strategies to succeed in corporate America.

The 8447 group was founded in 2018 and named in reference to U.S. Patent No. 8,447X, the second patent granted to an African American, Edwards said. The patent was granted to Henry Blair in 1834 for his corn planter and horse-drawn cotton planter inventions. Blair was illiterate and his patent ownership was vigorously disputed. Edwards said such tenacity was inspiring and reflective of the group’s message of empowerment.