Garrett A. Morgan, an Honorary Member of Alpha Phi Alpha, Invented the Three-Position Traffic Signal

Did you know that the man who gave the world the three-position traffic signal was an honorary member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.? His name was Garrett A. Morgan, and with only an elementary-school education, he became one of the most important inventors in American history.

Garrett Augustus Morgan was born on March 4, 1877, in Paris, Kentucky. His formal schooling ended in the elementary grades, but he never stopped teaching himself. He moved to Cleveland, Ohio, as a young man and built a series of businesses, from a sewing machine repair shop to a garment factory to a hair care company.

Morgan’s gift was solving problems that saved lives. In 1914, he patented a “safety hood,” a breathing device that let a person draw clean air in smoke or toxic conditions. On July 25, 1916, he proved its power in dramatic fashion. After an explosion trapped workers in a tunnel filled with poisonous gas beneath Lake Erie, Morgan and other volunteers put on the hoods and descended into the tunnel, pulling survivors to safety. As the National Inventors Hall of Fame records, his invention became a forerunner of the modern gas mask.

His most famous invention came in 1923, when Morgan patented the three-position traffic signal. Early signals told drivers only to stop or go. Morgan added a third position, a caution interval that halted traffic in all directions before letting it move again, giving vehicles and pedestrians time to clear the intersection safely. According to the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center, he sold the rights to his design to General Electric for $40,000, and versions of his signal spread to intersections across the country.

Morgan was recognized by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. as an honorary member, initiated through the fraternity’s Pi Chapter. Alpha Phi Alpha was founded in 1906 at Cornell University as the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans.

Garrett A. Morgan died in 1963 in Cleveland, Ohio. More than a century after he added that caution interval, his idea still governs nearly every intersection in the world.

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