A Celebration of Black History

Garrett A. Morgan – Businessman and Inventor (1875-1963)

Garrett Augustus Morgan, one of the country’s most successful African American inventors, was the first to create and patent the three-way traffic signal and a safety hood and smoke protector (gas mask). His other patents include a hair straightening product and an improved sewing machine.

Born on a farm near Paris, Kentucky, Morgan was one of eleven children to a part-Indian slave mother and a father who was the son of a Confederate colonel. As an entrepreneur, he established the Morgan Skirt Factory in 1909 which was a tailoring plant with thirty-two employees. In 1913, he founded the G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Company that offered a complete line of hair care products. In 1923, Morgan sold the traffic signal patent to General Electric.

Source:

Smith, Jesse Carney. Black Facts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. 3rd ed. 612. Visible Ink Press, 2013.

Garrett Morgan Biography. Biography.com. A & E Television Networks. Web. 7 Feb. 2016. http://www.biography.com/people/garrett-morgan-9414691.