Hair Care Pioneer & Black Business Entrepreneur
1877 - 1963
🇺🇸 United States Consumer & Personal ProductsGarrett Augustus Morgan was born on March 4, 1877, in Paris, Kentucky, the son of formerly enslaved parents who had gained freedom after the Civil War. Growing up in the aftermath of slavery, during the violent era of Jim Crow segregation, Morgan witnessed the extreme racism and economic oppression that Black Americans faced. His parents, having lived through enslavement, instilled in him a determination to succeed despite the barriers white society erected to keep Black Americans in poverty and powerlessness.
Morgan received minimal formal education—like most Black children in the South during this era, he had limited access to schooling and faced schools that were grossly underfunded compared to white schools. At age 14, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, seeking better opportunities than rural Kentucky offered. He worked as a handyman while teaching himself mechanical skills, reading everything he could find about machinery, chemistry, and invention. Morgan possessed an innate curiosity about how things worked and an inventive mind constantly looking for ways to improve products and processes.
In 1895, at age 18, Morgan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, which had a growing Black community and more economic opportunities than the South. He found work repairing sewing machines, demonstrating exceptional mechanical ability. He quickly mastered sewing machine mechanics, understanding not just how to fix them but how they could be improved. This expertise would prove crucial to his future success as both inventor and entrepreneur. Cleveland became Morgan's home, where he would build his businesses and establish himself as one of the most successful Black inventors and entrepreneurs of his era.
In 1909, Morgan opened his own sewing machine and shoe repair shop in Cleveland. His business served both Black and white customers at a time when many white businesses refused to serve Black patrons. Morgan's skill and fair dealing earned him a solid reputation and steady income. But he wasn't content just repairing machines—he constantly experimented with chemicals and mechanical improvements, seeking inventions that could build wealth and independence.
Around 1913, while working on a chemical solution to reduce friction on sewing machine needles—which could overheat and scorch fabric at high speeds—Morgan made an accidental discovery that would change his life. He had been testing a solution designed to polish and lubricate needles. He wiped his hands on a piece of pony fur cloth, and when he returned later, he noticed something remarkable: the fuzzy, kinky fibers on the cloth had become straight and smooth.
Intrigued, Morgan tested the solution on a neighbor's Airedale dog, whose wiry coat became straight and silky after application. Recognizing the potential significance—especially for the Black community, where hair texture was fraught with social implications and where few hair care products were designed for Black hair—Morgan tested the solution on his own tightly curled hair. It worked. The chemical straightened his hair, making it easier to style and manage according to the standards of beauty that dominated American society.
Morgan immediately recognized the commercial potential of his discovery. In 1913, he patented his hair straightening cream and founded the G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Company. This was a bold entrepreneurial move during an era when Black-owned businesses faced enormous obstacles. Banks refused loans to Black entrepreneurs, white suppliers often wouldn't sell to Black businesses, and many white customers refused to patronize Black-owned establishments. Morgan succeeded despite these barriers through determination, quality products, and serving a market—the Black community—that was ignored by white-owned cosmetics companies.
Morgan's hair straightening cream quickly became popular in Cleveland's Black community. At the time, Black Americans had few hair care options designed for their needs. Most cosmetics companies produced products only for white consumers, ignoring the Black market entirely. Morgan's product served this underserved community while also reflecting the complex relationship Black Americans had with hair during Jim Crow. Straightened hair was often seen as more "respectable" and "professional" in a society that denigrated natural Black hair as "nappy" or "unkempt." Morgan's product allowed Black men and women to style their hair in ways that mainstream society deemed acceptable, potentially reducing discrimination in employment and social situations.
Beyond hair straightening cream, Morgan developed and sold a complete line of hair care products—pomades, hair grower solutions, hair dyes, and grooming supplies—all marketed specifically to Black consumers. He employed other African Americans in his manufacturing and sales operations, providing jobs in a discriminatory economy where Black workers faced limited opportunities and were typically restricted to the lowest-paying positions. His company represented Black economic empowerment and self-sufficiency, values that Black leaders like Booker T. Washington promoted as essential to racial progress.
Morgan's success in the beauty business made him one of Cleveland's most prominent Black businessmen. At a time when the vast majority of Black Americans worked in agriculture, domestic service, or manual labor, Morgan had built a manufacturing and retail business that served customers across multiple states. He advertised in Black newspapers, employed Black sales agents, and became a model of what Black entrepreneurship could achieve even in the face of severe discrimination.
His business provided more than just employment and products—it offered dignity and economic opportunity in a society that sought to deny both to Black Americans. Workers in Morgan's company could earn decent wages, develop business skills, and achieve a measure of economic security impossible in most employment available to Black workers. Morgan treated his employees fairly and paid them well by the standards of the time, recognizing that their success contributed to his own and to the broader goal of Black economic advancement.
Morgan also became active in Cleveland's Black community and in the early civil rights movement. He joined the NAACP and supported efforts to combat discrimination and segregation. He recognized that Black business success alone wasn't sufficient—political and legal equality were essential. He used his wealth and influence to support these causes, demonstrating that successful Black entrepreneurs had responsibilities to their community beyond simply running profitable businesses.
While Morgan is perhaps best known for his hair care products, they represented only one aspect of his inventive career. In 1914, he patented a "safety hood"—an early form of gas mask that firefighters could use to enter smoke-filled buildings. This invention gained national attention in 1916 when Morgan used his safety hood to rescue workers trapped in a tunnel explosion beneath Lake Erie. Despite racist responses—some fire departments refused to buy the device once they learned its inventor was Black—Morgan's safety hood saved numerous lives and was precursor to gas masks used in World War I.
In 1923, Morgan patented a three-position traffic signal—an improvement over the two-position signals then in use. His signal added a "yield" position that warned drivers that the signal was about to change, reducing accidents at intersections. He sold the patent rights to General Electric for $40,000 (equivalent to about $600,000 today), a substantial sum that further established his financial success. The traffic signal innovation improved urban safety for millions of drivers and demonstrated Morgan's versatility as an inventor.
These inventions, combined with his business success, made Morgan one of the most accomplished Black inventors and entrepreneurs of his generation. He held multiple patents, employed dozens of workers, and achieved financial independence remarkable for any American but extraordinary for a Black man born to formerly enslaved parents just twelve years after the Civil War's end.
Garrett Augustus Morgan died in 1963, the same year as the March on Washington and the height of the Civil Rights Movement. He had lived to see the beginning of the modern civil rights struggle, though he didn't survive to witness the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or Voting Rights Act of 1965. His life spanned from Reconstruction through Jim Crow to the brink of the civil rights revolution, and throughout it all, he embodied Black resilience, creativity, and economic empowerment.
His hair care business and other inventions provided economic opportunities for Black Americans during an era of severe oppression. Every worker he employed, every product he sold, every patent he secured represented a victory against a system designed to keep Black Americans impoverished and powerless. He demonstrated that Black entrepreneurship and innovation could succeed even in the face of enormous obstacles, providing a model for future generations of Black business owners and inventors.
The beauty industry that Morgan helped pioneer would grow into a major economic force in Black America. Black-owned hair care and cosmetics companies would employ tens of thousands, generate billions in revenue, and create wealth that helped build Black middle-class prosperity. While debates continue about the cultural implications of hair straightening and Eurocentric beauty standards, Morgan's business operated within the reality of its time—a reality where conforming to mainstream appearance standards could mean the difference between employment and poverty, between opportunity and exclusion.
Today, Morgan is remembered not just for his specific inventions but for what his life represented: the triumph of ingenuity and determination over oppression, the power of entrepreneurship to create opportunity, and the importance of Black economic self-sufficiency. From his birth to formerly enslaved parents to his success as inventor and businessman, Garrett Augustus Morgan's life embodied the African American struggle for freedom, equality, and economic justice.
Garrett Morgan's hair care innovations provided economic opportunities for Black entrepreneurs and served an underserved community during the Jim Crow era, demonstrating the power of Black business ownership and innovation.
Garrett Augustus Morgan's legacy extends far beyond his specific inventions to what his life represented: the power of Black entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic self-determination during one of the most oppressive periods in American history. Born to formerly enslaved parents just twelve years after the Civil War, Morgan built multiple successful businesses and became one of the most accomplished Black inventors of his generation—all while navigating the violent racism and legal discrimination of Jim Crow America.
His hair care business was particularly significant for creating economic opportunity in the Black community. At a time when Black workers faced severe employment discrimination and were typically restricted to the lowest-paying jobs, Morgan's company provided decent wages and opportunities to develop business skills. Every person he employed, every product he sold, every dollar that circulated through the Black community represented economic empowerment and resistance to oppression.
The beauty industry that Morgan helped pioneer would grow to become a major economic force in Black America. From Madam C.J. Walker's hair care empire to modern Black-owned cosmetics companies, the industry has employed hundreds of thousands, generated billions in revenue, and created wealth that helped build Black middle-class prosperity. Morgan was an early pioneer in demonstrating that Black-owned businesses could serve Black consumers profitably and sustainably.
His multiple inventions across different fields—hair care, safety equipment, traffic control—demonstrated the breadth of Black creativity and innovation. Each patent, each successful product, each business success challenged racist assumptions about Black intellectual inferiority and incapability. Morgan proved that a Black man born to former slaves, with minimal formal education, could invent products that saved lives, improved safety, and served millions.
Today, Garrett Morgan is remembered as a pioneer who succeeded against extraordinary odds, who created opportunity for his community, and who demonstrated that Black entrepreneurship and innovation could thrive even in the face of systemic oppression. His life remains an inspiration and a reminder of the resilience, creativity, and determination that have always characterized African American responses to injustice.
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