Wale Elegbede: Contributions made by African Americans are everywhere There are so many neglected contributions of African Americans, which is why Black History Month is needed, and why African American historian Carter G. Woodson created and spearheaded it in 1926 to honor those contributions. Written By: Wale Elegbede | × Welcome to Black History Month! I’d like you to go on a little drive with me to downtown Rochester. Before we get to where we are going, we’ll need to wait for the three-way traffic light to change, and traffic to stop at the intersection so that we can safely drive through. By the way, we have African American inventor Garrett Morgan to thank for that. Morgan improved the traffic light system when he patented the electric automatic traffic signal in 1923. In addition to the “stop” and “go” lights, his invention also stopped traffic in all directions to give drivers adequate time to stop or get through the intersection. We’ll now safely cross the street and observe homes and businesses with security systems. For those security systems, we have African American female inventor Marie Van Brittan Brown to thank. She created the home security system that became our closed circuit television security system today (CCTV).