Emeline King grew up with a large and loving family in Detroit, Mich., in the 1960s. Her father, Earnest O. King Sr., was a Baptist pastor, as well as the first Black fabrication specialist at Ford Motor Company. 

For Emeline, he was a role model and a mentor. Following in his trailblazing footsteps, she became the first Black woman to design cars at Ford. 

A Black woman in a suit stands with 6 white men around a red Mustang car.Emeline King, design manager for the SN95 Mustang Program, stands with her colleagues next to the 1994 Ford Mustang she designed. Photographed at the Ford Design Center in Detroit, MI in 1994.


She came to StoryCorps with her sister-in-law, Michelle Williams-King, to remember her career, starting with the day her father brought her to Ford.

An older Black man stands arm stands close to a younger Black woman, both in work attire, in a living room.Emeline and her father Rev. Earnest O. King Sr. in the family’s living room in Detroit, MI, celebrating Emeline’s first day of work at Ford on October 24, 1983.

 

Feature photo: Emeline King and Michelle Williams-King in a 1994 Mustang driving to a book signing for Emeline’s autobiography at the Motown Museum in Detroit, MI in August, 2023. By Emeline King for StoryCorps.

This broadcast is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Originally aired September 5, 2025 on NPR’s Morning Edition.