Garrett Morgan was born March 4, 1887, and died Aug. 27, 1963.

In 1907, he started a business repairing and selling sewing machines. While his wife Mary sewed clothes, Morgan built and maintained the sewing machines. He also began experimenting with a liquid for polishing sewing machine needles to prevent them from burning fabric as they sewed. When he discovered the liquid also could straighten hair, he used it to develop a hair cream.

Morgan then began investing his profits into developing more inventions.

When he learned about a devastating fire that killed 146 garment workers in New York City in 1911, Morgan devised a solution to help firefighters struggle with smoke inhalation. In 1912, he filed for a patent on his breathing device, a “safety hood” designed to give a first responder the ability to breath fresh air from near the floor and forcibly remove smoke or injurious gases from the air tube.”

Despite his invention’s obvious lifesaving potential, Morgan found difficulty selling his safety hood to white fire chiefs who refused to buy products from a Black inventor. In response, he sought the advice of famous entrepreneur J.P. Morgan, who suggested he remove his first name from the product. Following this advice, the inventor renamed his device the “Morgan Safety Hood.” He also hired white actors to promote the product at conventions, helping him to avoid racist objections. His new marketing strategies worked, and fire departments across the country finally began to buy his early gas masks.

Later, while driving through Cleveland, Morgan witnessed a collision between a horse-drawn carriage and another vehicle at an intersection. Though rudimentary traffic lights existed at the time, they only displayed two signals: stop and go. Recognizing the need for better traffic control, Morgan created a revolutionary T-shaped signal that included a “caution” light — the equivalent of today’s yellow light.

He patented his three-way traffic signal in 1923. The hand-operated signal stopped traffic in all directions. This allowed vehicles that were already in an intersection to safely pass through without the risk of collision. Morgan sold his patent rights for $40,000 to General Electric, and the company developed an electric version of his three-way traffic signal.

An advocate for racial equality throughout his life, Morgan formed one of the first Black fraternities in the country at Cleveland's Western Reserve University. In 1963, he was honored as a pioneering citizen at the Emancipation Centennial Celebration for his essential contributions to public safety and his legacy of perseverance, ingenuity and problem solving for the common good.

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