Mollye BarrowsPensacola News Journal
In the 1960s, Pensacola, like much of the South, was still in the grip of Jim Crow era laws that legalized segregation.
That meant Black people were barred from using many facilities at area businesses and public places, like bathrooms and water fountains. The Rev. H.K. Matthews was instrumental in changing that.
The nationally recognized activist was a member of the Pensacola Council of Ministers, which led civil rights activists in marches, demonstrations and lunch-counter sit-ins throughout Downtown Pensacola.
Before they took to the streets, though, the activists would often gather at Trailways Bus Station. The station, built in 1962, was newer at the time they were protesting downtown, and it was centrally located in Pensacola at the corner of Baylen and Wright streets. More importantly they were treated just like white patrons at the business.
Previously: Historians hope to put brakes on demolition of '60s-era downtown Pensacola bus station
Meet Rev. Matthews: Iconic civil rights leader still fighting for equality
“We couldn’t go to the bathrooms anyplace downtown in Pensacola, so we would always go to the Trailways Bus Station,” recalled Matthews. “We could use the bathrooms and eat at the lunch counter. We used that as an assembling point for the Pensacola Council of Ministers. We just made it a practice of meeting up there in the afternoons almost daily, because that was the only place that we could really assemble and feel free and comfortable because the proprietors made no specific overtures to us and they made no specific resistance to us, so we just kind of felt at home.”
Feeling comfortable in public places at the time was no small feat for many in the minority community. The bus station opened in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. It was built a year after a highly publicized attack at a Trailways Bus Station in Anniston, Alabama, where a group of white men boarded a bus carrying Freedom Riders protesting segregation and beat them badly. In other parts of the country, including Virginia and Massachusetts, activists protested segregation at Trailways bus stations, but not the depot in Pensacola. There, activists both Black and white gathered in peace.
“We sat down and ate lunch or dinner,” said Matthews, “and there were a lot of people in Pensacola who worked downtown, janitors and things, who knew that we assembled at the Trailways Bus Station, so they would stop by and chat with us. We were just a general assembly place. I’d hate to see them demolish that building because of all the memories it holds for me.”
The history of the Trailways Bus Station is resurfacing because the property owner, Immanuel Lutheran Church, petitioned Pensacola’s Architectural Review Board to tear it down. The request, which was brought to the ARB because the property is in the Historic Palafox Business District, was denied on Thursday.
Request denied: Trailways Bus Station spared from demolition and deemed significant to Pensacola history
The church has always used it for overflow parking and wanted to raze the building to make the entire corner a parking area, explaining the bus station is in a state of disrepair and has become a safety liability. The ARB when denying their request, pointing out that the mid-century depot has unique architectural and historical significance and the church has allowed the property to deteriorate as much as it has, to the point of "demolition by neglect."
Although the church said it does not want to sell or lease the property, many people have suggested the building be repurposed for other uses including a restaurant or business. Pensacola city council member Teniadé Broughton is among those who think it should be used for a purpose other than parking. She's also president of the John Sunday Society, a group established in 2016 to save the home of former Black businessman, landowner and civic leader John Sunday, who lived near downtown.
Ultimately their efforts weren’t successful, but the cause renewed interest in historic preservation, especially as it relates to Black history. Broughton said there are several historic sites in Pensacola that reveal what life was like for people of color here across the decades, and a lot can still be learned from the lessons of the past, both good and bad.
Righting the past: War veteran and prominent citizen, John Sunday is dead at 86
“I would love to see the property as something that connects the community, especially in that area,” said Broughton. “This is not the most vibrant part of downtown. It seems it would be more beneficial to the city if it became something to create vibrancy, something better than a parking lot. Although I know this church owns the property, what we are hearing from the community is do something more beneficial than a parking lot.”
Not only does the old bus station have ties to the Black community, but also to the Jewish community. According to a Pensacola News Journal article dated March 1, 1962, construction of the depot was announced by Dr. M.S. Lischkoff, who was also on the committee to rebuild Pensacola’s Temple Beth-el back in 1931.
Longtime local historian Tom Garner said the mid-century bus station falls into an age group that many in the general public consider outdated, but not historic. He said many older buildings are lost because each generation views 50- or 60-year-old structures as out of fashion.
“When you walk in historic cities like Charleston, Savannah, or New Orleans, they're incredible because a long time ago people made the decision to preserve and repair structures that many would have said were not worth it,” explained Garner, “but it is worth it. We just have to be able to see a little bit into the future. If every structure were to be demolished at the 50- or 60-year mark, there would be no historic districts.”
Matthews thinks the depot could make a great Civil Rights museum, not only because the Pensacola Council of Ministers used it as a staging area for demonstrations, but also because it’s located so close to the downtown stores where they held sit-in’s and the streets where they marched for change. Even the old Southern Bell building, which is a block or so over from the Trailways Bus Station, was the site of a protest.
Matthews encouraged Black customers to pay their phone bills in pennies after the company refused to hire minority workers, a move that resulted in long, frustrating lines at the phone company and the hiring of minority employees.
“I think I’m about the only one who is left behind from the Pensacola Council of Ministers,” said the 95-year-old activist. “If I had my druthers, they wouldn’t tear it down, they would convert it to a civil rights museum. For it to be used as a civil rights museum in that area, would be ideal.”
