Andrew Jackson Beard (March 29, 1849 – May 10, 1921) was an African American inventor, who introduced five improvements to the automatic railroad car coupler in 1897 and 1899, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio in 2006 for this achievement.

[1] Born on March 29, 1849, Andrew Beard spent the first fifteen years of his life as a slave on a small farm in Eastlake, Alabama.

[2] A year after he was emancipated, he married and became a farmer in Pinson, a city just outside Birmingham, Alabama.

[2][4] Beard's railroad car coupler improvement included two horizontal jaws, which automatically locked together upon joining.

[1] Little is known about the period of time from Beard's last patent application in 1897 up until his death,[2] but he reportedly became paralyzed and impoverished in his later years.