Albert Johnson petitioned for more than a decade before he became the first Black dealer for General Motors.
Johnson entered the car business by balancing a job in hospital administration with being the "salesman who sold from a briefcase" at Noting Oldsmobile in Kirkwood, Mo.
He was not permitted to sell from the dealership premises in 1954, according to African-American New Car Dealers, a historical database created by former Ford Motor Co. executive Rusty Restuccia.