African American Automotive Associationits prestigious Hall of Fame award for the class of 2024. Established to celebrate Black Americans who are trailblazers of the automotive industry, KJ joins a short list of inductees that include many icons you may know, including GM stylist Ed Welburn, NASCAR driversIn some respects, KJ’s career as an automotive journalist mirrors those of others in the automotive media industry.
KJ’s early world wide web networking efforts paid off when he connected with longtime Ford journalist and subject expert Mark Houlihan, also an early internet advocate. As the editor of, Houlihan was plugged into the car magazine scene, and this proved to be a gateway to other individuals.
Though KJ’s career arc has much in common with others in the same field, much of it does not. The hot-rodding aftermarket, motorsports, and automotive journalism in general suffer severely from a lack of Black involvement, and we would argue that although this is changing slowly, these industries have, at best, been historically indifferent to that omission.
Even in 2024, the ranks are largely devoid of faces of color, and KJ, as usual, does not pull any punches: “I’ve done this alone, if you will, for the majority of my career. Until recently, with the advent of digital and social media, there’s been no other Black editorial associate that I’ve met or encountered in the aftermarket—performance, hot rod, or truck space. It’s been a career of being seen, earning my spot, and proving what I can do.
We’re extremely proud of KJ’s accomplishments at HOT ROD and we hope you’ll join us in celebrating this important milestone. Let’s hope it’s the first of many!