Shoals Transit Integrates Its Buses in April of 1956

Title

Subject

Civil Rights

Description

A series of articles from May and November of 1956 reporting on the April 29, 1956 integration of its buses by Shoals Transit in response to the recent US Supreme Court ruling outlawing the segregation of buses.

Shoals Transit, headquartered in Sheffield, in Colbert County, which was owned by American Transit Lines, Inc. of St. Louis, MO, announced that it would no longer enforce segregation rules on its buses, defending the action as the only one it could take as long as federal law outlawed segregation while AL state law continued to allow it.

With an estimated 55,000 residents in the Shoals, one-fifth of those residents were African-American and according to company official Tom Bolen, of Shoals Transit Lines' 60,000 passengers, one-third were African-American. According to Bolen there had been no problems connected with the company's decision to integrate, and none were expected, "unless it is fomented from the outside."

Source

Tri-Cities Daily

Birmingham (AL) News

Huntsville (AL) Times

Decatur (AL) Daily

Montgomery (AL) Advertiser

Talladega (AL) Daily News

Montgomery (AL) Advertiser

Pittsburgh (PA) Courier

Publisher

Microfilm (1, 7)

Newspapers.com (2-6; 8)

Date

Contributor

Lee Freeman

Rights

Images are available for educational and research purposes. This image may not be reproduced for commercial purposes without the express written consent of the copyright holder. It is the responsibility of the interested party to identify the copyright holder and receive permission.

Format

Jpeg

Language

English

Type

Still Images

Files

Shoals Buses Desegregated TCD Tues May 1 1956 p 1.jpg

Muscle Shoals Buses Drop Segregartion B'ham News Tue May 1 1956 p. 1.jpg

Muscle Shoals Buses Halt Ban on Segregation Huntsv Times Tue May 1 1956 p1_.jpg

Halt Segregation on Shoals Buses Decatur Daily Tue May 1 1956 p. 1.jpg

In Muscle Shoals Area Montg Adv Wed May 2 1956 p. 1.jpg

Tri-Cities Bus Lines Stopping Segregation Talladega Daily Home Thu May 3 1956 p 11.jpg

Stop Enforcing Bus Segregation Pitts Courier Sat May 12 1956 p 13.jpg

Varied Reaction to Ruling Montg Adv Thu Nov 15 1956 p. 1.jpg

State Bus Officials Montg Adv Thu Nov 15 1956 p 7.jpg

Collection

Civil Rights

Citation

“Shoals Transit Integrates Its Buses in April of 1956,” Shoals Black History, accessed April 27, 2024, https://shoalsblackhistory.omeka.net/items/show/1189.

Shoals Transit Integrates Its Buses in April of 1956

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