'Auto Trends' Talks One-On-One with Ford's First Black Female Car Designer (Two Shows)

 

Emeline King designed the interior of the 1994 Ford Mustang. (Photo Credit: EK)

As we celebrate Black History Month, Auto Trends with Jeffcars.com, a multicultural syndicated automotive program, shines the high beams on Emeline King, Ford Motor Company’s first Black female car designer. King, who was hired in 1983, was one of the first Black female car designers in the auto industry. Marietta Kearney Ellis, who was hired one-year earlier by General Motors, was the first in the industry.

Currently, there are approximately 30 Black car designers globally. Black car designers barely make up a fraction of this exclusive club of creative innovators. In fact, one has a better chance of being drafted at .03%, according to sports sources into the NBA, than becoming an automotive car designer.  

Melissa Harville-Lebron Shares On 'Auto Trends' How Love, Music And A Near Death Experience Drove The Mother Of Seven To Become A NASCAR Team Owner

Melissa Harville-Lebron (Photo Credit: Melissa Harville-Lebron)

If you’re a racing fan, you’re more than likely familiar with such history makers as Willy T. Ribbs, Wendell Scott, Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace Jr., Latrice ‘Tia’ Norfleet and Lewis Hamilton.

Unlike the aforementioned noted names, barrier breaker Melissa Harville-Lebron has not spent countless hours behind the wheel racking up laps. She’s literally taken a different course of action to steer the wheel and break into this male dominated sport, which lacks diversity in terms of both melanin and gender.

Rewind Interview: The Brother That Put Chrysler Back in the Black (Part One of Two)

Photo Credit: JeffCars.com

Our one-on-one interview with Ralph Gilles, the brother behind Chrysler's 300, first ran on Tom Joyner’s website, BlackAmericaweb.com, on June 25, 2006. In case you missed it, here's an opportunity to see what was on the mind of Chrysler's current Group vice president of design.

When every auto critic questioned whether American consumers would buy the bold, in-your-face, rear-wheel-drive Chrysler 300, especially in snowy climates such as the Midwest and the Northeast, Chrysler executives ignored the critics and continued on their path to build such a vehicle.

Fortunately for Ralph Gilles, the 36-year-old, one-time college dropout and lead designer of the ultra-popular 300 for the Chrysler Group, the American buying public stood in line to snatch-up all of the vehicles that were available and ignored the critics too. Prior to the launch of this vehicle, Chrysler was bleeding red, with a $637 million loss in 2003. Gilles’ design influence helped put the company back in the black. The company posted a $1.9 billion profit in 2004 while many of their domestic competitors have been struggling since to improve their designs and profitability.

Crystal Windham: The Sister Behind GM's Trend-Setting Interiors

At one time, growing up in the suburbs of Detroit as an African American female meant you had two career options: work in the music industry for Motown or build cars for the "Big Three" -- GM, Ford and Chrysler. Since music wasn't the calling of Crystal Windham, the first African American female director in GM's design history (and in the auto industry), she decided to take the road less traveled by not building cars in a factory like many of our ancestors or working in a traditional administrative role typically expected of women.

Windham decided to buck the trend, operating in a field not normally occupied by women (African Americans or Hispanics for that matter). Furthermore, having Windham overseeing a design team is about as rare as finding a brother teaching elementary school.

Windham, who says she's a risk taker and driven like her mom (who is now deceased), became enamored with the auto industry after receiving a scholarship to take up an auto design class during her freshman year at the College of Creative Studies in Detroit (Ralph Gilles, lead designer of the Chrysler 300, and Earl Lucas, the exterior designer of the all-new Taurus, attended CCS, too).

While she found the class to be both challenging and rewarding, Windham immediately caught the bug -- itching to become an auto designer. To test her skills at auto designs, she accepted a summer internship with Ford before landing her dream job out of college with GM.

And unlike most Generation Xers, who have worked for several companies in the span of their professional careers, Windham has been loyal to GM (and GM has been loyal to her, too). Since joining the company, she has had several high-profile assignments, from living in Germany for a year to becoming the lead designer of the interior of the 2004 Chevy Malibu to her current appointment as director of North American passenger-car design.

In fact, while researching new trends in luxury purses such as Louis Vuitton, Windham came up with the award-winning two-tone upscale interior for the current generation Malibu, which has been praised by the industry and customers alike.

In addition to fashion influencing her car-interior designs, interface products like Blackberry cell phones and MP3 players have also helped the GM designer develop the Midas touch.

When Windham was asked what advice she would give to those looking to accomplish something outside of the norm, she suggested finding something you love and are passionate about. Stay open-minded, but never be afraid to ask for help even if it's from someone who doesn't look like you. Work hard. Have a positive support system. And be open to criticism -- within it, there's a message that shouldn't be ignored. Like Jesus was able to turn water into wine, Windham has used her fashion sense and love for tech gadgets to revolutionize the car industry.