Special Atlanta bus design honors civil rights icon John Lewis

Caption

A digital sign in the MARTA College Park train station is park of the event honoring the late civil rights leader.

Credit: Amanda Andrews / GPB News

Atlanta transit leaders held an event Sept. 13 at the College Park MARTA Station to unveil a new bus with a design honoring the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis last week.

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority has been celebrating civil rights icons with a series of special buses over the past year. As part of the effort to honor John Lewis organizers also held a voter registration drive for Fulton and Clayton counties.  

MARTA CEO Collie Greenwood said transit plays an important role in providing people with access to opportunity.

“Days like today remind us that a spirit of service and activism lives on,” he said. “As we honor the past, we remain committed to ensuring transit is a place where we are all welcome — much like the civil rights movement, where inclusion and equality serve as a foundation for opportunity.”

MARTA will host another voter registration and education drive Tuesday, Sept. 17, for National Voter Registration Day. The event will be a partnership with community organizations at seven rail locations across Atlanta to encourage election participation.

Detria Austin Everson is the CEO of the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation. She said this bus is a rolling monument to the Freedom Riders who helped integrate buses in the south.

“It reminds us that the fight for freedom is not finished and there is still work to be done,” Everson said. “There's still hearts to touch, there's still minds to change and, yes, there's still laws to be rewritten.”

MARTA says upcoming bus designs will recognize the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, Evelyn Gibson Lowery and Ambassador Andrew Young.