MARTA launches year-long celebration of Civil Rights leaders with bus honoring the King family

As a part of a year-long celebration of Atlanta Civil Rights leaders, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) has partnered with the King Center to unveil a special bus honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. The bus will begin service on Route 3: MLK/Auburn Avenue and move to different routes during the next four months.

Public transit has played a major role in the fight for equal rights, with the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955 sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott that would bring Dr. King to national prominence. Dr. King would go on to call urban public transportation “a genuine civil rights issue” because of its critically important role in connecting its riders to opportunities for employment. 

“Transit is a place where all are welcome and like the Civil Rights movement, where inclusion and equality serve as the foundation for opportunity,” said MARTA General Manager and CEO Collie Greenwood. “MARTA is proud to have played a role in the rich history of the city of Atlanta and the Civil Rights movement and recognize the impact of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King, and the road they traveled as they changed the world.”

MARTA leadership is making an effort to employ a workforce that reflects the diversity of its ridership and the region. The agency has also developed business practices that align with an ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion, such as launching a multi-year initiative to increase participation of its largest vendors in Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) programs, creating a more level playing field on which minority-owned firms can compete for MARTA contracts.

As it has done in years past, MARTA will stage its 1955 historical bus directly across from the King Birth Home located at 501 Auburn Ave. on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Jan. 15.