Here at the Tallahassee Automobile Museum, we are celebrating black history month by recognizing two historic “firsts” of their kind.
October 14, 1920
The first college radio station began broadcasting from Union College, Schenectady, New York under the personal call letters of Wendell King, an African-American student at the school.
William B. Johnson
William B. Johnson was both the first African American Harley-Davidson dealer and the first African American licensed to compete in national motorcycle racing events. Johnson signed on with Harley-Davidson sometime in the 1920s, managing during nearly 60 years Johnson’s Harley-Davidson out of a converted blacksmith shop.
Because African Americans were not allowed into the American Motorcyclist Association, the organization that hosted the events, it is said that Johnson was only allowed to join and enter the competitions after he and die-hard fans declared that he was an American Indian.
The C.R. Patterson & Sons Company
The C.R. Patterson & Sons Company was a carriage building firm (1873-1915), and the first African American-owned automobile manufacturer. The company was founded by Charles Richard Patterson, who was born into slavery in April 1833 on a plantation in Virginia. Patterson escaped from slavery in 1861, heading west and settling in Greenfield, Ohio around 1862. C.R. Patterson was a blacksmith by trade and worked as such until going into business as a carriage builder in 1873.
Charles Patterson died in 1910, leaving the successful carriage business to his son Frederick who in turn initiated the conversion of the company from a carriage business into an automobile manufacturer. The first Patterson-Greenfield car debuted in 1915 and was sold for $850. With a four-cylinder Continental engine, the car was comparable to the contemporary Ford Model T. Approximately 30-50 cars were made over the next four years.
None are known to still exist today.
