From buggies to buses, the first Black-owned US automaker did what few dared

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/03/the-life-and-times-of-c-r-patterson-sons-the-first-black-owned-us-automaker/

by irtefa • 5 years ago

83 22 5 years ago

datavirtue• 5 years ago

I used to live in the area and I pass through Greenfield often. Most of the buildings are likely still there and I don't think Greenfield ever recovered from the 1894 depression. It's also loaded with racists...quite the reversal. The only law enforcement around is in the next county over.

stonlyb• 5 years ago

Off the shelf hardware helped get them off the ground and scale but I wonder to what degree proprietary IP could have given them more of a long term advantage. Process innovation eventually leaks. It seems lack of access to capital played the biggest role in the eventual outcome.

trynton• 5 years ago

I have a great deal of admiration for someone who managed to succeed despite the obstacles placed in his path.

JetAlone2• 5 years ago

Agreed, it's an inspiring story. The article briefly touches on his involvement in his community. That's an extremely important part of success, for just about anybody.

solidsnack90002• 5 years ago

The article talks about why the Patterson company did not go on to become a big automaker like Ford. Although they say that, on the one hand, few of the small early automakers made it, and Patterson was ten years too late, they also say that it was surely due to systemic racism. It's an odd thing to say not because racism would not have been experienced by the Patterson company but because it doesn't seem like it explains what happened, given the article's more general points about the fate of most of the early automakers.

While Frederick had the right idea, small firms like his own couldn’t compete for long with the mass-manufacturing might, and daily production capacity, of far larger automakers like Ford, General Motors, Willys, Studebaker, and others. Ford alone was building 10,000 cars a day, a number Patterson couldn’t begin to match.

Beyond sheer manufacturing scale, Patterson also lacked the engineering and design resources of these large concerns. Considering the time frame, that was no doubt due to the fact that, as the company’s own ads state, they were “the only Negro Automobile Manufacturing Concern in the United States.” Systemic racism and prejudice of the time made it difficult for Patterson & Sons to attract the financing necessary to compete. And on top of that, they were a decade too late. If automaking had been undertaken a decade sooner, it’s possible that Patterson & Sons might have grown along with the industry into a larger manufacturer rather than remaining a small-time assembler—something the company never was as a carriage builder.

JetAlone2• 5 years ago

_There have been more than 1,900 automobile manufacturers in the United States since the Duryea Motor Wagon Company sold its first automobile in Springfield, Massachussetts in 1896. Yet in the explosion of entrepreneurship that followed, only one American automaker has been founded and run by a Black individual: C.R. Patterson & Sons of Greenfield, Ohio._

The racism surely couldn't have helped. It already tells us something that this was the only automobile manufacturer founded and run by a Black man from among around 1900 competitors. I think the article suggests that if the discrimination hadn't made funding so difficult to acquire, they could have overcome their late entry. But it's hard to be sure 100% exactly what would have happened.

wombatmobile2• 5 years ago

It's an odd thing to say not because racism would not have been experienced by the Patterson company but because it doesn't seem like it explains what happened,

Doesn't it? How about the quote you included from the article?

Systemic racism and prejudice of the time made it difficult for Patterson & Sons to attract the financing necessary to compete

solidsnack90002• 5 years ago

It doesn't. How about the rest of the quote you quoted from? To consider just one excerpt:

...small firms like his own couldn’t compete for long...

wahern• 5 years ago

"that was no doubt due" is an ambiguous phrase. A consequence always has multiple but-for causes. We usually try to categorize causes by culpability, but even then there can be multiple of the most culpable. Plus we don't always distinguish but-for from contributing causes.

When someone says "no doubt due" I think people tend to assume but-for causation. But people who make the claim may not have intended that, even when they assume the opposite as listeners. In the next sentence the author uses the phrase "made it difficult", which to me has the effect of qualifying the previous claim, suggesting that "due" is not necessarily a but-for cause, but a notable contributing cause. I don't know what the authors intentions were, or even how much thought they put into it. And there are so many possible interpretations here, though undoubtedly many people will be primed to head down certain well-worn paths.

I wouldn't get too hung up on it. I see this everywhere. I even see it in my own writing. If we're being charitable, we can just chalk it up to not having enough time. (And there's never enough time.) We can probably safely assume a predisposition to emphasize matters of racial inequality. (I haven't read the article, just the title and your excerpt.) But so what? The phrasing is ambiguous, which means it's not wrong on its face, nor is it necessarily lacking support. There's little reason to be anything less than charitable, lest we draw flawed conclusions of our own.

snicker7• 5 years ago

According to the article, Patterson couldn't secure financing because of systemic racism. It is possible that, even if this weren't the case, they would have still failed. But the lack of financing didn't help. It is hard to imagine any manufacturer surviving without financing.

Grustaf3• 5 years ago

If I were black and reading an article like this, I think it would feel more empowering and encouraging if it was written like any other article about a historic person, and just causally mentioned the founder's background. As it is, it doesn't feel empowering at all.

Comparing it to something trivial from my own life, if I read an article about some surfer or skateboarder and he happens to be even older than I am, that makes me feel hopeful about improving my skills. But if the author again and again talks about how hard it is for older surfers and that it's basically a miracle that he even survives then I would feel the opposite.

Yes I know it's not the same but still, it would be interesting to hear from an actual African-American what they feel about this kind of article.

pyinstallwoes2• 5 years ago

Careful, that talk in these times will get you downvoted, it's not approved by the Ministry of Approved Thoughts. You don't want to get put on the critical revaluation of bias education list, do you?

Grustaf3• 5 years ago

I know, but I’m genuinely puzzled by this. It just doesn’t seem to make sense to me.

dragonwriter• 5 years ago

If I were black and reading an article like this

You have no idea what you would feel, because you aren't.

I think it would feel more empowering and encouraging if it was written like any other article about a historic person, and just causally mentioned the founders background.

No, whitewashing the context wouldn't make it more more “empowering and encouraging”.in any sense, it would just rob it of honesty and relevance.

As it is, it doesn't feel empowering at all.

Yeah, honest stories about the Black experience in the late 19th and early 20th Century in the US usually aren't, except in the sense that making people feel less alone in the deep struggles they still face and see their community facing is.

That's not a problem with the storytelling.

Yes I know it's not the same but still, it would be interesting to hear from an actual African-American what they feel about this kind of article.

As an actual Black American, it is, I guess, a fine piece of the struggle narrative, and notable as a reminder that the struggle was not then (and is not now) limited by either the geography of socioeconomic classes that are usually focussed on (though that focus, in both cases, is not without reason.)

It's not some kind of transcendent work that will liberate you from the struggle just because you've consumed it, but that's hardly the point.

Grustaf3• 5 years ago

Thank you for your input. So it seems we agree, this kind of piece is not very empowering. For some reason I presumed that was the point.

Perhaps you could share examples of stories that actually are empowering and inspirational?

Animats• 5 years ago

There's a somewhat better article, with more sources, about the company here.[1] They pivoted from cars, which had become a mass-produced item, to bus bodies and other specialty bodies. Those could be custom-built in small quantities. They supposedly made the transition from wood to metal, but had more trouble competing in metal, which is less about craftmanship and more about heavy machinery.

[1] http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/p/patterson/patterson.htm

JohnL42• 5 years ago

This sent me down a HUGE rabbit hole, and I wound up here: https://uncpressblog.com/2020/02/17/author-interview-jill-d-... , having somehow downloaded this entire book as pdf into my tablet.

From buggies to buses, the first Black-owned US automaker did what few dared

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