Among the inductees for the Automotive Hall of Fame's class of 2023, announced late last week, was McKinley Thompson (pictured), the first Black designer that Ford Motor Company hired and one of the designers behind the original Ford Bronco. While Thompson's career spanned decades, included contributions to many concept and production cars, and earned him multiple accolades, his selection is also part of a growing movement at the hall not just to recognize the contributions of Black people to the automotive industry but also to address the shortcomings of the institution dedicated to celebrating those contributions.

"We're really pushing the awarding body of our institution to look at diversity and inclusion through a broad lens," said Sarah Cook, the president of the Automotive Hall of Fame.

This initiative started, according to Cook, in 2019 when the hall performed a diversity, equity and inclusion assessment on itself and found several areas in which it was not living up to its ideals, including the awards that the hall gives out and the list of inductees in the hall. Of the 297 total members of the hall of fame at that time, chosen over the previous 52 years, just two were Black people. "We don't mean to say that awarding by the hall is everything, but we looked at that number and said that can't possibly be the whole contribution, it's not the full story," she said.

Indeed, in the search for other Black automotive pioneers and leaders to consider for induction into the hall of fame, Cook said hall officials first had to contend with the question of whether so few had already been inducted into the hall due to racism that kept Black people from participating in the early automotive industry or due to racism that kept those who did participate in the automotive industry from being recognized.

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