Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a three-wheeled vehicle used to convey tourists in Palm Beach, Florida; the drivers are invariably black [implies subservience].

1903		Florida Dept Agric. Qly Bulletin 31:1-3 20: Bicycle chairs found in great numbers at Palm Beach, propelled by negroes; therefore the name Afromobile.
1912		H.G. Rhodes Guide to Florida 166: The wheel chair—the ‘afromobile’—the only vehicle in use at Palm Beach, is an easy chair of wicker made single or double, set on bicycle wheels and propelled bicycle-fashion by a colored boy seated behind. It is silent and ordinarily swift.
1917		R. Lardner Gullible’s Travels 131: I was obliged to pay another four bits for an Afromobile to cart us back to our own boardin’ house.
1920		N.Y. Times 2 Dec. 10/3: Only a few , when the air becomes nipping [...] can afford to go to Palm Beach and ride about in afromobiles.
1939, 1953, 1976		(refs. to 1900s) in DARE.
1995		(ref. to 1900s) Booklist 🌐 ‘Afromobile’ is accurately defined as an early 1900s Palm Beach vehicle consisting of a two-seated wicker chair in the front and a bicycle in the back pedaled by a black man; the entry includes the assertion that this was ‘the only vehicle permitted in the city.’.

2. (US black) any fashionable automobile, e.g. a BMW, Lexus, Mercedes [implies success].

1996–2000

(con. 1940s) Deuce Ofay Productions ‘The Jive Bible’ at JiveOn.com 🌐 Afromobile: n. Any means of vehicular transportation containing an ‘afroed’ or fly individual; [...] ‘Sheeeeeit!! Did you check that afromobile that just slid by? The man with the circle could part traffic like a knife through bitch-butta!’.