# Garrett Morgan

*Black inventor and entrepreneur whose safety devices protected drivers, workers, and cities.*

> Black's Encyclopedia — the sourced record of Black American life.
> Portal: Science & Invention · Status: In review · Revised: July 22, 2026 · Revisions: 1
> Canonical: https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/garrett-morgan-f66b

## Questions this record answers

- Did a Black man invent the traffic signal?
- Did Garrett Morgan invent the gas mask?
- What did Garrett Morgan actually patent?

## Summary

Garrett Morgan built devices that saved lives, including an early traffic signal and a breathing device that became a gas mask. His work belongs in the core record of American invention, not at the margins of it.

## The archive's standing

Morgan was not a footnote to industrial modernity; he was one of the makers who shaped how modern cities moved and how workers survived danger. The archive holds him as a serious inventor, mechanic, and businessman whose practical genius answered public need. His legacy is larger than any single patent because he turned Black ingenuity into tools the nation could use.

## The work

Morgan’s best-known inventions include a redesigned traffic signal and a breathing device later associated with rescue and firefighting work. These were not ornamental ideas; they were working interventions into the hazards of urban life and industrial labor.

## Why this record matters

Standard retellings often flatten Black invention into a small set of repeated names or treat patents as the whole story. That approach misses the full American record, where Black makers solved real problems even when the credit economy did not fully carry their names.

## The archive’s reading

Morgan stands as part of the tradition of Black practical science: invention rooted in use, repair, observation, and public necessity. The record should remember him as a builder of systems that made everyday life safer.

## Sources

1. Garrett Augustus Morgan, U.S. Patent No. 1,475,024, Traffic Signal, filed Feb. 20, 1922, issued Nov. 20, 1923.
2. Gloria G. Foster, ed., Black Inventors and Their Inventions, Black Inventors and Their Inventions, Los Angeles: Black Inventors and Their Inventions, n.d.; digitized in University of California, San Diego Library Digital Collections (PDF).

## Related records

- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/traffic-light
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/gas-mask
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/home-security-system
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/automatic-elevator
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/american-fire-service

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Cite as: Black's Encyclopedia, "Garrett Morgan," revised July 22, 2026. https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/garrett-morgan-f66b

Text under the Black's Record License: cite the record, keep attribution attached, cite the revision date.