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Feature
Clarence Fort: Activist During The 1960s Advises Today’s Movement To ‘PRESS ON’
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
Clarence Fort didn’t ex- pect that he would be the one to initiate the integration of the Tampa Transit Lines workforce.
But that’s exactly what happened in 1960 when he wrote a letter to the bus com- pany demanding that it hire Black drivers. If it did not, the city’s Black community would boycott, he wrote.
The bus company’s re- sponse? It asked Fort to rec- ommend qualified drivers to hire.
“Things began to change from there,” he said.
On Monday, Fort regaled an audience of 60 people for an hour with stories about his time as an activist during the Civil Rights Movement and recapping his experi- ences as one of the first Black drivers for the long-distance Trailways bus lines.
Prior to his talk, Fort was presented the Lamp of Knowledge Award as part of the Robert W. Saunders Li- brary’s Black History Experi- ence program.
Fort, a native of Hawthorne, Fla., was a 20- year-old barber and new president of the NAACP’s Youth Council in February, 1960 when he led 50 high
Civil Rights activist, Clarence Fort honored with Lamp of Knowl- edge at Robert W. Saunders Library.
process, Fort was selected for training alongside four white men.
For two weeks, he earned just $10 a day learning how to drive under a trainer who yelled at him constantly.
Fort said he leaned heav- ily on his faith to get through that rough period.
“I prayed every night,” he said. “Some people knew I was training and I didn’t want to let them down.”
After he successfully com- pleted training, Fort said his trainer revealed that he was purposely tough on him be- cause “you’re going to have to be twice as good.”
“The truth had never been told any better than he said it,” Fort said.
During his time as a Trail- ways driver, Fort said he en- countered some racist treatment. When he pulled into the stop at Moultrie, Ga., the white station manager re- fused to adhere to his duty of unloading Fort’s bus.
But there also were mo- ments of kindness.
When Fort drove 50 white women to Clewiston,
Meetings
Fla., the group stopped at a restaurant for lunch.
The group’s president in- sisted he eat with them, but a waiter refused to serve him.
The president immedi- ately came to his defense and the waiter relented.
“The president jumped up and said ‘if you don’t serve him, you don’t serve us’,” he said. “She integrated Clewiston that day.”
Fort, who is a retired Hillsborough County Sher- iff’s deputy said, “it wasn’t about driving the bus,” he said. “It was the fact that people needed to see us in different positions.”
Civil rights activism today looks somewhat different from that of Fort’s time, with Black Lives Matter at the forefront of the move- ment.
Still, Fort said the charge to today’s participants is the same one given to those of his time: PRESS ON.
“They have to keep on marching,” he said. “It’s a different time, it’s a different struggle. They just have to keep on.”
school students in a sit-in at F. W. Woolworth's lunch counter on Franklin Street in downtown Tampa.
Although Black patrons could not eat at the lunch counter, the department store was a popular shopping site for many of them, Fort said.
And with Easter upcom- ing, it seemed fitting to target the store for the sit-in and a boycott, he said.
Timing the demonstra- tion within weeks of the hol-
iday was key in getting the at- tention of store managers, he said.
Fort’s timing was right when he sought to become the first Black Trailways bus driver from Florida.
Initially turned away be- cause of a lack of driving ex- perience, he reapplied after briefly driving for Tampa Transit, the bus line he had helped integrate.
He drove to Miami for an eight-hour interview with Trailways. After enduring the
Middleton Class Of 1972 And 1973
The Middleton Class of 1972 and 1973 will have its monthly class reunion meeting, Saturday, July 16th at 2 p. m. at the C. Blythe Andrews Branch Library, 2607 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. All class members are encouraged to come out to the meet- ing.
Blake High Class Of 1966 Meeting Weekly
The Howard W. Blake class of 1966 will meet weekly at the Open Café 3222 N. 34th St. on Thursdays 10:30 a. m. Please plan to attend as we are finalizing preparations for our 50th class re- union.
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