Greyhound Lines is an intercity common carrier of passengers by bus serving over 3,700 destinations in the United States. It was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA, in 1914 and incorporated as "Greyhound Corporation" in 1929. Today, it is headquartered in Dallas, Texas (United States operations) and Calgary, Alberta (Canadian operations), and is a subsidiary of the British bus operator FirstGroup plc.
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Greyhound Lines is an intercity common carrier of passengers by bus serving over 3,700 destinations in the United States. It was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA, in 1914 and incorporated as "Greyhound Corporation" in 1929. Today, it is headquartered in Dallas, Texas (United States operations) and Calgary, Alberta (Canadian operations), and is a subsidiary of the British bus operator FirstGroup plc.
History
Carl Wickman was born in Sweden in 1887. He moved to the United States, and in 1914 began a bus service in Minnesota where he transported iron ore miners from Hibbing to Alice at 15 cents a ride in a 1914 Hupmobile.
In 1915, Wickman joined forces with Ralph Bogan, who was running a similar service from Hibbing to Duluth. The name of the new organization was the Mesaba Transportation Company, and it made $8,000 in profit in its first year.
By the end of the First World War Wickman owned 18 buses, and was making an annual profit of $40,000. In 1922, Wickman joined forces with Orville Caesar, the owner of the Superior White Bus Lines. Four years later, Wickman reached an agreement with two West Coast operations, the Pickwick Lines and the Pioneer Yelloway System.
In 1926, Wickman's bus operations became known as the Greyhound Lines. Wickman, who was president of the company, continued to expand it, and by 1927 his buses were making transcontinental trips from California to New York.
Wickman's business suffered during the Great Depression, and by 1931 was over $1 million in debt. However, with the improvement in the economy, the Greyhound Corporation began to prosper again. In 1935, Wickman was able to announce record profits of $8 million. By the outbreak of the Second World War the company had 4,750 stations and nearly 10,000 employees.
Wickman retired as president of Greyhound Corporation in 1946, and was replaced by his long-time partner, Orville Caesar. Carl Wickman died at the age of sixty-seven in 1954.
But for many young people from Europe, Greyhound was the way they got to know America because of a special unlimited mileage offer - "99 days for $99" or, in other words a dollar a day, anytime, anyplace, anywhere... To young African-Americans Greyhound meant segregated busses, brutal bus drivers, and "separate, but unequal" station facilities in the South. Black passengers were often forced to give up their seats to white riders and standby until a seat became available in the back of the bus. In 1961 Freedom Riders boarded Greyhound and Trailways busses to test court-ordered desegregation of busses, trains, and planes, because previous Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) rulings and Presidential mandates to integrate interstate travel had been largely ignored by southern carriers. Local law enforcements stood by watching as black and white civil righters were beaten by angry white mobs and busses burned. In 2001, a 40th year Freedom Riders' Reunion 1 was held. The Freedom Rides were inspired by the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation led by civil rights gay activist Bayard Rustin. Rustin was arrested and sentenced to slave labor on a North Carolina chain gang for violating local Jim Crow laws.
