Bus Boycott Newspaper

Bus Boycott Newspaper

When Duke Power, the campus bus provider at the time, increased bus fares by 5 cents, students erupted in protest, declaring “Shoe Leather Day,” a campus-wide boycott of buses. In one of the earliest instances of activism at Duke, students walked and carpooled between East Campus and West Campus. A 1993 article would later write that “the nation knew of students roller-skating, using pogo-sticks, and riding in the cars of faculty members.” Buses ran empty as the protest stretched from a day to a week. Ultimately, the protest was unsuccessful and Duke Power maintained the fares.

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED

1949

Student Activism Reference Collection, Box 1, Folder 4: Duke Bus Strike, 1949, Duke University Archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Newspaper cover of black text on a beige background with the heading "Bus-Less Revolution Spreads Against Duke Power Fare Hike."

transportation; publications

1949