Morgan, the son of two former slaves, came to Cleveland as a young man in 1895. He eventually became a successful business man, owning his own tailoring shop and creating a line of hair-care products, including a hair-straightening solution whose formula he came up with himself. In addition to his gas mask, Morgan invented an early version of the traffic light. Morgan also founded the Cleveland Call, a weekly African-American newspaper, and was involved in the Cleveland Association of Colored Men, an early civil rights organization. He died in 1963 and is buried in Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery.
