Introduction

Race and the GRTC go hand in hand.

The GRTC was not always as inclusive and equal as it is now. We saw this in our interview with David and Franklin Williams. They spoke of how their father was one of the first Black bus drivers in 1962. Through their stories we learned how hard it was for Black people to get jobs because of Jim Crow Laws. We also learned how Black drivers received worse equipment and less pay than white drivers. We saw how hard it was to be a Black driver when people would not ride the bus because a Black person was driving it. People would also call the bus in stolen because a Black person was driving it.

 
 

A short comic that shows the progression of the GRTC to become more racially diverse.

Franklin and David Williams with a portrait of their father, who was one of the first black drivers at the GRTC.

 

“
He went home and told my mother and my mother heard on the radio that day, that the white drivers were getting fearful for driving into some of the Black neighborhoods. And so, GRTC put an advertisement out. It was called Virginia Transit Company.

David Williams

 

Deeper Dive

Franklin and David Williams’s father was one of the first Black drivers for the Virginia Transit Company (GRTC). The GRTC needed to hire Black drivers to drive in Black neighborhoods because white drivers refused to drive in Black neighborhoods in the 1950s and 1960s.