Garrett Augustus Morgan ( Paris, Kentucky 1877 – Cleveland 1963 ) self-taught American inventor and social leader against racism. In 1916 she used her improved design of the gas mask to save the victims who were trapped by an explosion in the Lake Erie tunnel and saved her brother Frank in the process. This act of heroism was ignored by the newspapers and authorities. She received numerous requests for her mask from firefighters around the country but when they discovered from the photographs of the rescue that she was African-American, various orders from the south of the country were cancelled. After attending a major traffic accident she invented the traffic light and patented it. She worked in social organisations and founded the Cleveland Call & Post Newspaper.