TAMPA, Fla. — In honor of Black History Month, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit is adding extra stops at schools across the county. It’s all part of their effort to educate students about the significance public transit has played in our nation’s history.
This week HART staff arrived at Shaw Elementary School to speak with fourth graders.
“You are going to learn something today that you haven’t learned before,” said Program Director Carla Williams.
Williams said her favorite part about working for HART is every February, she and her staff have the opportunity to visit schools across the county, teaching kids about public transportation’s impact when it comes to black history.
“It means a lot to me and it means a lot that the kids and the schools actually are accepting this program, I was told this morning by a teacher, ‘I’m so glad you guys are doing this,’” said Williams.
Every year, HART wraps a bus with a new theme, and this year, it’s in recognition of the Freedom Riders.
“It started in 1961 where our Freedom Riders, seven blacks, six whites, came together, they wanted justice for all,” said Williams.
On the bus are photos of these Freedom Riders and a history lesson about the challenges they endured.
“Folks that did not want this to happen, they actually set the bus on fire,” said Williams.
Inside the bus are plaques dedicated to famous African Americans who transformed transportation, like Maya Angelou.
“She was a street car driver at the age of 16. That was her first job,” said Williams.
The goal is to visit schools in every part of the county that HART serves.
“It’s fantastic because it’s a change of pace, we are normally in the classroom, they get to step out on kind of a mini field trip even thought we don’t really leave the school,” said teacher Michael Patterson. “Hearing a different voice unlike mine, they are like, ‘Oh different, I want to pay attention.'"
Even though February will soon come to an end, the Freedom Riders bus rolls on, being incorporated into a regular route.
“So I’m hoping folks will just look at the bus, take a picture, and do their own history on it because there is a lot of history on it,” said Williams.
