Garrett A. Morgan

Garrett Augustus Morgan was an inventor whose creations saved countless lives — yet whose contributions were often obscured because of the color of his skin. He invented the three-position traffic signal, which he patented in 1923 and later sold to General Electric for $40,000. He also invented a smoke hood — an early gas mask — that he personally used to rescue workers trapped in a tunnel explosion under Lake Erie in 1916.

Born in Paris, Kentucky, in 1877, the son of formerly enslaved parents, Morgan had only a sixth-grade education but possessed an inventor's mind that saw problems as opportunities. He moved to Cleveland, Ohio, as a teenager and worked as a sewing machine repairman before opening his own repair shop and eventually a garment manufacturing business.

Morgan's rescue at the Lake Erie tunnel, known as the Cleveland Waterworks disaster, should have made him a national hero. He descended into a smoke-filled tunnel wearing his patented "safety hood" and carried survivors to safety. Instead, when his race became known, orders for the device from Southern fire departments were canceled. Morgan continued inventing and advocating for Black rights, founding the Cleveland Call newspaper and running for Cleveland City Council. His traffic signal patent became the foundation for modern traffic management worldwide.