06/19/2026
Juneteenth is a time to honor Black history, resilience, and achievement, and to recognize the many ways Black innovators have shaped the world we move through every day.
These four men are among those whose work and legacy have directly influenced the development of the automotive world.
Garrett Morgan invented one of the earliest versions of the three-position traffic signal after witnessing the dangers of road collisions, along with other safety-focused inventions that helped lay the groundwork for modern traffic control systems still used today.
McKinley Thompson Jr broke barriers as Ford Motor Company’s first Black automotive designer and played a key role in shaping the original Ford Bronco, contributing to a design legacy that helped define an era of American off-road vehicles and continues to influence SUV design today.
Charlie Wiggins was a self-taught mechanic and pioneering driver who built his own race cars, including the famed “Wiggins Special,” and competed in segregated racing circuits where Black drivers were often excluded from mainstream competition, demonstrating extraordinary ingenuity and determination.
Frederick Patterson led one of the earliest Black-owned automobile companies in the United States through C.R. Patterson & Sons, transitioning the business from horse-drawn carriages into automobiles and helping establish a foundational legacy in early Black automotive entrepreneurship.
These men helped shape the automotive world through innovation, craftsmanship, and perseverance, leaving legacies that continue to influence how we design, build, and understand mobility today. This is only a small selection of many important Black innovators in automotive history.
