Patterson, Charles Richard
1833-1910 · Contribution: 1865-1900s
Transportation
Founded C.R. Patterson & Sons, the only automobile manufacturing company in U.S. history founded and owned by an African American
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- 1833-1910
- Active since
- 1865-1900s
- Category
- Transportation
Impact on the world
Patterson built, from bondage, a manufacturing enterprise durable enough that his family could carry it into the automobile age as the nation's only Black-owned carmaker.
An alternative history
What Would the World Look Like Without It?
One contribution. Many possible consequences. No single-person origin story.
Imagine this selected contribution absent, not the person or the entire field. The areas below are reflection prompts related to this discipline, not verified chains of direct dependency.
Sources
- Source lookupFind
Petersen Automotive Museum
Exact source links open the cited record. Source lookups help locate legacy references whose original records did not include a direct URL.
4 more sources and references are available to members.
More in Transportation
Allen, Thomas C.
unknown
Co-completed the first transcontinental flight by Black pilots in U.S. history, serving as mechanic and co-pilot alongside James Herman Banning
Banning, James Herman
1899-1933
First African American to be licensed as a pilot by the U.S. government; co-completed the first transcontinental flight by Black pilots
Beard, Andrew
1849-1921
Improved automatic railroad car coupler (Janney coupler design)
Bluford, Guion 'Guy' Jr.
1942-
Aerospace engineering and human spaceflight