Garrett Augustus Morgan Sr.
(March 4, 1877 – July 27, 1963)

On November 20, 1923, the U.S. Patent Office grants Patent No.
1,475,074 to 46-year-old inventor and newspaperman Garrett
Morgan for his three-position traffic signal. Though Morgan’s
was not the first traffic signal (that one had been installed in
London in 1868), it was an important innovation nonetheless:

By having a third position besides just “Stop” and “Go,”
it regulated crossing vehicles more safely than earlier
signals had.

Morgan also invented a "safety hood smoke protection device"