If you’ve done 1860s Unboxed, you learned a lot about traffic lights and even made your own! But you likely wouldn’t have recognized the traffic signals of the 1860s. They took on many forms and were not standardized until well into the twentieth century. By the 1920s though, things had only gotten busier with bicycles, horse-drawn carts, and motor vehicles all sharing the roadways.
Garrett Morgan US patent US1475024A for a traffic signal, 1923.
After witnessing a crash between an automobile and a horse-drawn carriage, inventor Garrett Morgan developed the Morgan electric traffic signal, a T-shaped pole with three positions: Stop, Go, and All Directions Stop. He sold the rights of his traffic signal to the General Electric Corporation for $40,000 in 1923—an amount equivalent to $734,000 in 2024. Garrett Morgan was a prolific inventor who had already gained acclaim for a “safety hood” which was developed into a gas mask for use by the United States Navy during World War I. A jack-of-all-trades, he also owned a successful hair care company called G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Company that sold products specifically made for Black hair. In marketing his inventions, Morgan, who was mixed race, faced bigotry and would often hire white representatives to appear in ads or promotional photographs for the products.
Advertisement for G. A. Morgan Hair Refining Company, 1913.
Morgan was an important community leader in Cleveland, Ohio and was later a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an American civil rights organization. He represented a growing Black middle class in many Northern cities from the end of the Civil War through the twentieth century. The Great Migration saw formerly-enslaved people and their descendants leave the American South to the North in search of jobs and opportunities. While Black people were often excluded from lucrative manufacturing jobs, many paved their own ways through business ownership and creative inventions, just like Morgan.
Do you have a favorite Black inventor? Let us know!
Learn more about the rise of cities in 1900s Unboxed.
Learn more about the 1920s in 1920 Unboxed - coming soon!
For younger learners, there are two children's books about Garrett Morgan:
Saving the Day: Garrett Morgan's Life-Changing Invention of the Traffic Signal by Karyn Parsons and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
The Unstoppable Garrett Morgan Inventor, Entrepreneur, Hero by Joan Dicicco and illustrated by Ebony Glenn