Sometimes there is a man so great that he just throws the curve off so much that there's no damned way for anyone to try and keep up unless they invent time travel. This Black inventor Garrett Morgan decided that creating just one thing but at least three that helped change the course of history was not too big for him. Well, two changed history for the world. The other for Black people that hated having kinky ass hair.
Morgan was born in Paris, Kentucky to
former slaves on my birthday...but 101 years earlier. At 14 he had to
quit school to make money and moved to Ohio and looked for work,
mostly as a handyman. Since he was a super genius he had enough money
to hire himself a tutor. Later while working as a sewing machine
repairman he created a belt fastener for sewing machines. He and his
second wife ended up starting their own businesses called Morgan's Cut Rate
Ladies Clothing Store.
Years later he created a safety hood
after noticing that firefighters weren't that bright and kept running
into burning buildings and just breathing in all kinds of nonsense.
He tested and used this new invention that eventually was bought by
and used by the Army during war. Sadly, since people were running on
extreme levels of racism back then he'd hire a White actor to sell
the product. How racist can you be when you even have a problem with
the fact that this Black dude is saving thousands of lives? He would
even sometimes pretend to be a Native American (his mother was half)
and play a character named Big Chief Mason.
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| "Fffanks, Fffister Ffforfin!" (thanks, Mr. Morgan) |
Near the time his patent for this was
being approved he got bored waiting around and went and accidentally
invented something else. While trying to make a liquid that would
keep sewing needles from burning fabric he accidentally made a hair
straightening cream. I don't even want to know how that happens.
Seriously, what kinda wild and dangerous lab did this guy have? “Damn
it! I can't get this liquid to...uh oh! Wait. Damn, baby! You mixed?”
Instantly, new way for people to make their hair look all silky. And
then for funsies he also made a curved hot comb and a oil dye
specifically for Black hair.
And now for one of his best inventions.
When cars were first created people didn't know what the fuck they
were doing. Roads had people, cars, and horses just all over the
place. Right of way, my ass. Traffic signals were already around but
people paid just about as much attention to them as they do nowadays.
So Morgan said “Enough of this shit!” and created a traffic sign
that said stop, go, and all stop for pedestrians to cross. There was
also a half mast setting so people knew when the jerk who was
supposed to be manning the post was on break or off somewhere doing
racist shit.
Why wasn't I taught this in school?
Would it have been that hard in those twenty eight days to say to a
young and still smart at the time little Dante “Not only did people
who kinda sorta looked like you make peanut butter, the cotton gin,
and get their asses kicked every single day, but they also created
traffic signs and a product that would eventually lead to many Black
women doing irreversible damage to their hair”? I would've
listened. Or stared at Ruendy. Damn, I loved that girl.
Click here for previous Cool Shit Black People Invented.
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