A Black Invention

By Don Valentine

     In 1877, Garrett Morgan, “Black Edison ‘’ was born in post war Kentucky. When he was 14 he left for Cincinnati with a 6th grade education and only the money in his pocket. Young Garett quickly found work as a handyman. The next step on the sojourn of possibility was to get more education for his dreams. Sandra Morgan, his granddaughter, did an interview with Teachingcleveland.org. She said, “He knew how to read. He could write and he could figure. But he had higher expectations for himself…”  Young Garrett hired tutors to teach him English grammar and math.

He quickly found mechanical design was his forte. He worked repairing sewing machines and in 1901 invented a sewing machine belt fastener. That gave him the funds in 1907 to establish a sewing machine sales and repair shop. He opened a tailoring business and later the Morgan Skirt Factory. It was noted in Thoughtco.com that, “The new company turned out coats, suits, and dresses, all sewn with equipment that Morgan himself had made.” A year later he made a dramatic statement among the Cleveland White gentry by marrying Mary Anna Hasek. She was a White seamstress, and it was one of the earliest interracial marriages in Ohio.  A scant 42 years after the Emancipation Mr. Morgan crossed the racial Rubicon with his unpopular marriage. The loving marriage lasted almost 50 years until he died in 1963. Strong men persevere and so did Mr. Morgan.

“Black Edison” stumbled onto a safe method to relax curly hair. He found a glitch in the higher speed of the sewing machines he designed that scorched the threads. The trade magazine Scientific American wrote, “Morgan experimented with a chemical solution in an effort to reduce friction created by the needle and subsequently noticed that the hairs of the cloth were straighter. He quickly established the G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Company and sold the cream to African Americans. The company was incredibly successful…”

This genius is forever known for inventing the traffic light. It was his respiratory gas mask (later refined for use in WW I) that garnered J.P. Morgan’s attention. Blackpast.org chronicled the mask’s utility, “He gained national attention when he utilized his mask to rescue men trapped during a tunnel explosion in 1916.” That prompted the Gilded age banker to meet with the “Black Edison. Garrett explained the resistance of White people to buy from a Black. The Smithsonian Magazine noted J.P. Morgan suggested removing “Garrett A.” and calling it simply the “Morgan Safety Hood.” The nuance resulted in over 500 cities buying masks for their fire departments.

In 1916 he used his wealth to start publishing the Cleveland Call, a Black paper. It became the Cleveland Call and Post in 1929 and is still in publication today. “Black Edison” bought a farm in 1923 and established the “Black Wakeman Country Club. He rests in the eternal Omega Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha.