Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr.
(March 4, 1877, Claysville, Harrison County, Kentucky – July 27, 1963)
He was an American inventor, businessman, and community leader. His most notable inventions were a three-position traffic signal and a smoke hood (a predecessor to the gas mask[1]) notably used in a 1916 tunnel construction disaster rescue. Morgan also invented a zigzag attachment for sewing machines. Morgan also discovered and developed a chemical hair-processing and straightening solution. He created a successful company based on his hair product inventions along with a complete line of haircare products and became involved in the civic and political advancement of African Americans, especially in and around Cleveland, Ohio.
In 1923, he received US Patent 1,475,024 for his T-shaped, manually operated traffic signal that “stopped vehicles in both directions before changing the direction of traffic flow.
He received a patent for his smoke hood design in 1914, the year he launched the National Safety Device Company. It is unknown whether the smoke hood brought him any commercial success. In 1916, Morgan rescued workers trapped in a water intake tunnel 50 ft (15 m) beneath Lake Erie, using a hood fashioned to protect his eyes from smoke and featuring a series of air tubes that hung near the ground to draw clean air beneath the rising smoke. He was also given a medal from the International Association of Fire Engineers, which made him an honorary member.
Morgan’s invention of the safety hood was featured on the television show Inventions that Shook the World
Morgan co-founded the Cleveland Call, a weekly newspaper that was a predecessor of what became the city’s major African American newspaper, the Call and Post. Morgan also helped found the Cleveland Association of Colored Men, where he served as treasurer until it merged with the NAACP; he remained a lifetime member. Using earnings from the sale of his traffic signal patent, he bought a farm near Wakeman, Ohio, and, in an age of segregated clubs, established the all-Black Wakeman Country Club. In addition, Morgan was a member of Excelsior Lodge #11 of the Prince Hall Freemasons, a branch of North American Freemasonry for African Americans founded by Prince Hall in 1784.
At the Emancipation Centennial Celebration in Chicago, Illinois, in August 1963 (one month after his death), Morgan was nationally recognized.
In the Cleveland, Ohio area, the Garrett A. Morgan Cleveland School of Science and the Garrett A. Morgan Water Treatment Plant have been named in his honor. An elementary school in Chicago was also named after him. An elementary school bearing his name opened in the fall of 2016 in Lexington, Kentucky. In Prince George’s County, Maryland, there is a street named Garrett A. Morgan Boulevard (formerly Summerfield Boulevard until 2002) and the adjacent Metro stop (Morgan Boulevard) also bears his name.
Morgan was included in the 2002 book 100 Greatest African Americans by Molefi Kete Asante.
Morgan is an honorary member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Photos: Western Reserve Historical Society
His accidental discovery of a chemical straightening cream occurred when Morgan observed fabric straightened by a liquid compound. He turned the liquid into cream and launched the G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Company. Morgan also invented a black oil hair dye and a curved tooth comb hair straightener in 1910.
