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In celebration of Black History
Month 2017, the Greensboro
Transit Authority (GTA)
outfitted a bus to honor historic
and present-day trailblazing
African-Americans.
The bus was transformed
into the Heritage Ride, a
rolling exhibit featuring images and information about
important people and events in black history both
locally and nationally. The Heritage Ride ran along a
regular bus route, and was also available to visit schools,
churches and other community groups. It traveled to 14
locations and was seen by more than 400 visitors.
The Heritage Ride displays featured well-known
individuals, such as President Barack Obama, Rosa Parks,
whose actions in Montgomery, Alabama, spurred the
integration of transit systems, and the Greensboro Four,
who touched off the national lunch counter sit-ins.
The exhibit also spotlighted lesser-known individuals
and events, and people of all races whose efforts
benefited society. It included information about people
like Gerald Lawson, an early African-American computer
engineer who invented the video game cartridge;
Levi Coffin, a Quaker and leader of the Underground
Railroad; the first African-American NASCAR driver,
Wendell Scott; Julius Rosenwald, a part-owner of Sears
Roebuck who donated millions in support of African-
American children’s education in the rural South; and
Garrett Morgan, an inventor who used a safety hood
he developed to rescue workers trapped in a tunnel
beneath Lake Erie in 1916.
The exhibit also displayed the “Negro Traveler’s Green-
Book,” a guide published from 1936 to 1966 that helped
black travelers find safe lodging and other services, and
the letter the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote while
imprisoned in the Birmingham Jail for participating in
segregation protests.
The Heritage Ride also recognized Edward Greenlee
and Liz McKinnon, the first African-American male and
female bus operators in Greensboro. McKinnon even
drove the bus to some of the special events during
February.
This program was made possible with support from the
Greensboro Public Library.
GTA Honors Black Leaders and Trailblazers with Heritage Ride
G R E E N S B O R O T R A N S I T A U T H O R I T Y
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