The Safe Bus Company was a Black-owned transportation company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, operating from 1926 to 1972. It was founded to provide transportation for African American workers and to serve the city’s underserved Black neighborhoods. Prior to its establishment, public transportation did not reach the areas of Winston-Salem where most African Americans lived.
On April 24, 1926, Clarence T. Woodland organized a meeting of local jitney owners and proposed forming a single transportation company. At that time, approximately 22 African American men operated 35 jitneys throughout the city. Each owner had a designated service area, but disputes often arose when one jitney operator picked up passengers from another’s territory. To ease these tensions, the meeting was held at a small office in the Lincoln Theatre Building in Winston-Salem. Several of the jitney owners agreed to join forces and established the Safe Bus Company. The company’s founders included John M. Adams, Elliot A. Davis, George I. Dillahunt, Jefferson H. Hairston, Elijah T. Miller, Joseph Miller, Harvey F. Morgan, Ralph R. Morgan, Charlie R. Peebles, George Ragsdale, and Clarence T. Woodland.
Harvey F. Morgan became the company’s first president; Jefferson H. Hairston served as vice president; Charlie R. Peebles as secretary-treasurer; and Clarence T. Woodland as assistant secretary. The company name came from a promise made to Mayor Thomas Barber to operate a safe and well-organized transportation system. A charter was granted, and on June 1, 1926, the Safe Bus Company officially began offering transportation to the city’s African American residents.
With the motto “Safety and Service,” the company quickly grew, employing more than 80 drivers and serving 8,000 passengers a day. This growth made the Safe Bus Company the largest Black-owned and operated transportation business in the world at the time. Its first offices were located in the Atlantic Building at East Third and North Church Streets, and the first garage was opened at the corner of East Third Street and Patterson Avenue.
In 1935, the company published a pamphlet explaining the reasons for its success. Peebles wrote, “Established upon the principle of service above profits and managed with a view to permanency and a justification of the ability of Negroes when allowed to handle affairs of merit and responsibility, the Safe Bus Co. has increased in strength, stature, and ability from year to year.” The company’s success exceeded that of the white-only streetcar systems in Winston-Salem. Tina Carson-Wilkins, head of marketing for the Winston-Salem Transit Authority (WSTA), noted, “Safe Bus was consistently more successful than Duke Power, which provided public transportation in white neighborhoods, or City Coach Lines, which took over those routes from Duke in 1955.”
By 1968, the Safe Bus Company had become the sole provider of public transportation for Winston-Salem’s African American community. However, despite its prior success, the company began to decline after taking on additional routes following integration. In 1972, the Winston-Salem Transit Authority purchased the assets of the Safe Bus Company, incorporating it into the city-run transportation system.
