The Black General Motors — Mistakes Were Made

Charles “Rich” Richard Patterson (C.R.), was born a slave in 1833 on a Virginia plantation. It’s unclear how he left the plantation, but he ended up in Greenfield, Ohio, where an Underground Railroad station existed. C.R. learned blacksmithing in Greenfield. He later worked as a foreperson for a carriage making company named J.P. Lowe & Company. C.R. would form a partnership with his white boss J.P., but the…