The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) proudly unveils a special bus honoring late Civil Rights icon and public transit advocate Congressman John Lewis.

Congressman Lewis was one of the original Freedom Riders who fought to desegregate the interstate bus system, and who was a tireless advocate for MARTA. As long-time community leaders and activists in Atlanta, he and his wife, Lillian Miles, understood the important role public transportation plays in providing opportunity for all. On MARTA’s 30th anniversary, Congressman Lewis said, “MARTA is a shining example of what can be done. We wouldn’t be the capital of the American South if we hadn’t had MARTA.”

“As part of our yearlong celebration of Black history, we want to recognize the profound contributions of Congressman Lewis who championed public transit and MARTA, and fought for voters’ rights his entire life,” said MARTA General Manager and CEO Collie Greenwood. “MARTA history is Black history.”

The bus was unveiled at College Park Station on Thursday, Sept. 12, followed by a nonpartisan voter registration drive conducted by Fulton and Clayton County Offices of Registration & Elections.

Throughout his life, Congressman Lewis was a tireless advocate for voting rights. In 1965, he helped organize voter registration efforts in Selma and was one of the Civil Rights leaders in attendance when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. Congressman Lewis’s work advancing voting rights continued throughout his political career until his death in 2020.

As part of National Voter Registration Day, MARTA is hosting additional nonpartisan voter registration drives on Tuesday, Sept. 17, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.at the following 7 rail stations: Five Points, College Park, H.E. Holmes, Lindbergh Center, Doraville, Kensington, and North Springs Stations. Please bring a photo ID to register. 

The MARTA bus celebrating Congressman Lewis is part of a series of special buses designed this year featuring Atlanta Civil Rights icons. The Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King bus was unveiled in January to mark the King Holiday, a bus honoring longtime MARTA board member Juanita Jones Abernathy was dedicated in April, and additional buses are planned in coming months for Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, Evelyn Gibson Lowery, and Ambassador Andrew Young.