Speaker 1: On today's episode. If I didn't know, maybe you didn't
Speaker 1: either hop into my time machine. I didn't Maybe you
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't know. Maybe you didn't get I didn't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe you didn't get I didn't know. I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I didn't know. The year was nineteen hundred and twenty six.
Speaker 1: Twenty one black men put their pride to the side,
Speaker 1: put their life savings together and got shares of stock
Speaker 1: for one hundred thousand dollars and made Safe Bus Company, Incorporated.
Speaker 1: It became the largest African American owned bus company in
Speaker 1: the nation. At one point, it was the largest black
Speaker 1: owned transportation company in the world. In nineteen fifty five,
Speaker 1: Safe Bus gross eight hundred and twenty five thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: and in its prime, the company carried fifteen thousand fairs
Speaker 1: a day, gross eighteen thousand dollars a week, and had
Speaker 1: seventy five employees. I even got a chance to talk
Speaker 1: to two women who worked for Safe Bus Company, Incorporated.
Speaker 1: First was Priscilla Stevens. She said she was the very
Speaker 1: first female driver for Safe Bus Company. It was something
Speaker 1: I always wanted to do every since I have a
Speaker 1: little kid coming up, but just never found out ever
Speaker 1: get the opportunity to do it. But I figured I
Speaker 1: had two strikes a gifting. I figured I wouldn't make
Speaker 1: it over the two strikes a woman. But then I
Speaker 1: talked to miss pat Reid and she says a debate
Speaker 1: on who the first was the first native driver? Uh, okay,
Speaker 1: well we gotta debate on happy chatty with the first,
Speaker 1: but blue who was the first? Hattie Fraser was chatty?
Speaker 1: Look go to my YouTube channel and check out both
Speaker 1: interviews in their entirety. When they first started operating, the
Speaker 1: fair started just five cents a nickel, and then it
Speaker 1: grew as the company expanded, And you can cut your
Speaker 1: seven believe that company definitely expanded, went from thirty five
Speaker 1: buses to forty two buses. Always had the nicest busses.
Speaker 1: Every year they got new buses. The buses operated a
Speaker 1: city bus drivers was making around a buck sixty two
Speaker 1: fifty an hour, and hell, that was more than school
Speaker 1: teachers was making back then. In nineteen sixty eight, Safe
Speaker 1: Bus provided transportation to all city residents. The company took
Speaker 1: on more routes, but finding drivers became a bit of
Speaker 1: a problem. Twin City Bus company couldn't keep up Hell
Speaker 1: couldn't nobody keep up, So everybody else folded, leaving only
Speaker 1: Safe Bus Company Incorporated. And that's when the city came
Speaker 1: in say, look, you can't just be servicing the black
Speaker 1: side of town. We need you to service the whole city,
Speaker 1: or we need you to shut down, or you can
Speaker 1: merge with us. So after deliberation, those twenty one stockholders
Speaker 1: made sure that each employee of Safe Bus Company Incorporated
Speaker 1: would keep their job, made sure that each employee of
Speaker 1: Safe Bus Company Incorporated would keep their length of service
Speaker 1: and their tenure when they transitioned over with the city,
Speaker 1: And in nineteen seventy two, those stockholders voted to sell
Speaker 1: the company to the city, thus creating Winston Salem Transit Authority.
Speaker 1: I had no clue I'm a product of Winston Salem
Speaker 1: State University, an HBC you founded in eighteen hundred and
Speaker 1: ninety two in the city of Winston Salem, North Carolina.
Speaker 1: Before my days of success, there were many times I
Speaker 1: had to ride, said Winston Salem Transit Authority and had
Speaker 1: no clue that. In nineteen hundred and twenty six, twenty
Speaker 1: one black men put their money together to create Safe
Speaker 1: Bus Company Incorporated that is now the Winston Salem Transit Authority,
Speaker 1: so you can just go on and take that to
Speaker 1: school to work with you. Because I didn't know. Maybe
Speaker 1: you didn't either,