Speaker and author Mr. Henry A. May talks about the entreprenurial spirit of C.R. Patterson, the only known African-American automobile manufacturer.

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While writing his mother's memoirs of her time as an artist during the Harlem Renaissance, Henry Atwell May discovered that she spent her summers with relations out in Ohio. There she would play in her uncle's factory, C.R Patterson and Son's Automobile Manufacturers to be precise. 

 

Henry May is the direct descendant of C.R. Patterson, a fugitive slave who fled to freedom by swimming across the Ohio River with his blacksmith tools on his back. The Patterson family would become the first and only known all African American automobile manufacturers.  Their story is one of hard work, unity, and the agility to change with the demands of the times.

 

Car enthusiasts and school children alike will enjoy the book and meeting the author, Henry A. May Jr. to hear how the discovery of C.R. Patterson and his contribution to the automotive world all came to fruition.

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