North Carolina's racist segregation laws pushed Black citizens to form their own businesses and modes of transpiration. In Winston Salem, NC one such company was both, a business that provided transportation, The Safe Bus Company. We #NCMAAHC have put together two articles for you to learn about the Safe Bus Company.
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The Safe Bus Company, the only Black-owned city bus company in the nation that ran a fixed route for the general public
Safe Bus Company, which operated in Winston-Salem from 1926 to 1972, was formed to provide African American workers in East Winston-Salem with transportation to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company plants. At that time, electric trolleys and other forms of public transportation did not operate near the eastern part of town where most of the Black citizens lived. Over the next 40 years, Safe Bus Company’s riders and profits increased markedly, but eventually it was bought by the Winston Salem Transit Authority (WSTA) in an effort to expand integrated bus service.

The company’s name stems from a promise made to Mayor Thomas Barber in 1926 to operate a safe and organized bus system, as the company transitioned from individually owned jitneys to a fleet of 35 city buses.
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‘Our company’: Safe Bus, started in 1926, was source of pride in Winston-Salem’s Black community
By John Hinton/Winston-Salem Journal Jun 16, 2013

Thirteen years after the city of Winston-Salem was created, automobiles, trucks and buses already traveled along the streets and roads in the Twin City. In 1926, there were at least 22 Black men operating 35 jitneys that provided transportation to Black residents in Winston-Salem. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. operated huge tobacco plant in the city’s downtown near Black neighborhoods. The jitneys were small buses that carried passengers.

“The business bred greed among those trying to pick up people to transport to work and it created some perilous moments for those using the service,” according to the company’s history on the Winston-Salem Transit Authority’s website.

“Each jitney owner had a designated area that he served,” the company’s history said. “If someone else came along and picked up passengers standing on a corner usually covered by someone else, it made some dangerous confrontations between the jitney owners.”

Thirteen of the jitney owners contributed $100,000 to begin the Safe Bus Co. Inc. that served the Black community during the Jim Crow segregation era in the city and throughout the South. The company was formed out of necessity. Streetcars, which were owned by Duke Power Co., ran north, south, east and west, but didn’t serve the entire Black community, local historian Joseph Bradshaw said during a 60th anniversary ceremony of the company’s founding in May 1986.
The utility company’s streetcars operated mostly in White neighborhoods and business districts in the 1920s, Otis Watson, Safe Bus’ traffic manager told the Winston-Salem Journal in July 1959.

“Negroes had to walk halfway to town before they got to a carline,” Watson said.

Safe Bus initially began with 35 buses, and it eventually expanded to 42 buses. The vehicles parked at the old Atkins High School on North Cameron Avenue because there was no garage to hold them, Bradshaw said. Many of the bus stops were located on Trade Street, near several black businesses that are no longer there. The bus company operated at a time when Blacks owned grocery stores, retail stores and funeral homes. The state of North Carolina granted a charter to the company on May 24, 1926, and its buses operated on the streets in the city’s eastern and northeastern sections. The fare was 5 cents, and most of its routes were short in populated areas.

Harvey F. Morgan was the company’s first president. The company thrived in its first four years, earning enough money that it survived the depression of the 1930s. By 1935, Safe Bus transported 8,000 passengers daily, employed 75 people and had an annual payroll of $65,000. The company published a pamphlet on its ninth anniversary in 1935. Safe Bus contributed to the economic and social development of Winston-Salem, Charlie Peebles, the then president, wrote in the pamphlet.

“Established upon the principle of service above profits and managed with a view to permanency and a justification of the ability of Negroes when given an opportunity to handle affairs of merit and responsibility, the Safe Bus Co. has increased in strength, statute and ability from year to year,” Peebles wrote.

The State magazine in June 1935 described Safe Bus Co. as the largest Negro transportation unit in the world. The company attracted national news coverage in a December 1965 article in Ebony magazine.

“Out of a system of segregation, Safe was born and its long history of service to the community is shared almost fanatically by the city’s Negroes who proudly identify with the company now largely run by heirs of the founders,” Ebony reported. “”Negro Winston-Salemites call Safe ‘our company’ and see it as a symbol of what Negroes can do if given the chance.”

The company survived through decades until the Winston-Salem Transit Authority took it over in 1972. A short documentary film, “The Legitimate Child” which portrays the Safe Bus Co., was shown in April at the 2013 RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem.
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Former drivers recount experiences at historic Safe Bus Co. of Winston-Salem
February 18, 2016 -THE CHRONICLE

The history of the Black-owned Safe Bus Company, which served East Winston and ultimately the entire city, was remembered at the New Winston Museum on Thursday, Feb. 11.

The Safe Bus Company operated from 1926 to 1972, when it was purchased by the City of Winston-Salem and became the Winston-Salem Transit Authority, (WSTA)

The black-owned bus company was a source of pride in the local African-American community and beyond, causing it to be featured in magazines like Ebony and Jet.

Because of Safe Bus, African-Americans in Winston-Salem didn’t have to sit in the back of the bus during segregation.
STA Marketing Director Tina Carson Wilkins, gave a presentation on the history of the Safe Bus Company based on a thesis she did on the company’s history. told, but never was,” she said.
In the 1920s there were dozens of jitneys, or small buses, competing against each other in the black neighborhoods of East Winston. Though jitneys were profitable businesses, the City got a number of complaints from citizens about them driving unsafely and stealing each other’s fares. Mayor Thomas Barber informed the drivers to work together or stop operating. In 1926, a group of them got together to form the Safe Bus Company.

At first, the buses had to park at an owner’s house, but the company would grow substantially, so that changed. By 1935, it had a fleet of 42 buses and by 1940, the company had a three-story headquarters, which included a grocery store, beauty shop and other businesses on its first floor.
At first, Safe Bus was restricted by segregation, with many parts of town it couldn’t drive in, but it eventually outlasted its competition that was serving the rest of the city, City Coach. By 1968, Safe Bus served the entire city. Some white people were resistant to the change and Safe Bus lost 40 percent of those who rode City Coach. Safe Bus started to lose money after that and in 1972, was purchased by the City.

Two former bus drivers shared their stories of working for Safe Bus. Priscilla Stephens, who became the first female driver for Safe Bus in 1966, said it was work she really enjoyed. She said her fellow drivers were very supportive. They were already used to working under a woman, since Mary Burns became the company’s first female president in 1959. Stephens was trained in one day by Clark Campbell, the longtime bus driver that the downtown bus station is now named after. She went on to drive for RJ Reynolds Tobacco and Greyhound Bus Lines before retiring in 2012.

She could still recall the different routes and diffident vehicles she drove. She was asked about a former City Coach bus called Big Timber, which she described as an “awful long” bus that resembled a freight car, and was known for being difficult to drive. “I didn’t have no problem with it; I just had to start stopping in time,” she said.

James Connor was a veteran returning from the Vietnam War when he was hired in 1967 by Safe Bus. He said he had a whole three days training before becoming a driver (WSTA drivers currently receive eight weeks of training). He retired from WSTA in 2004.

Even when Safe Bus only covered the black parts of town, drivers would sometimes get white passengers, Connor recalled. Since Safe Bus would run later than City Coach, buses that ran near white neighborhoods were sometimes used by white people. He remembered one white lady who was unsure about where to sit.

“She asked me ‘Do I have to go to the back of the bus?’ and I said “No, lady, sit in any vacant seat,” but one of the other drivers said he would’ve told the lady ‘Yes!'” said Connor.

The panel was held in conjunction with New Winston Museum’s exhibit, “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” which is on display through May 2016.

Image description: top photo shows the first bus owned by Safe Bus Company in 1926. The bottom photo shows two Black men, drivers for the Safe Bus Company-year unknown, it could be around 1960's eraly 70's.

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Source: https://www.journalnow.com/.../article_5613c018-d6f3-11e2...

Source: http://www.wschronicle.com/.../former-drivers-recount.../