Museums In Motion - Driving Equality

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H. Welton Flynn was the longest serving city commissioner in San Francisco history.

Fannie Mae Barnes was the first-ever cable car gripwoman in 1998.

Curtis E. Green was the first African-American Muni general manager.

By the late 1940s, African-American employees provided a strong foundation for Muni service.

By the late 1940s, African-American employees provided a strong foundation for Muni service.

African-American employment and leadership has become a proud Muni tradition.

African-American employment and leadership has become a proud Muni tradition.

Driving Equality

San Francisco didn’t always have a reputation for openness and inclusion. The city’s past has been marred by discrimination in many forms. For example, before World War II, all but a small number of city employees were white. African-Americans were especially unwelcome in the closed circle of city employment.

But the shortage of civilian workers during the war opened doors that had been locked tight. And the city department that provided the most opportunity to African-Americans was Muni. Along with its private competitor, Market Street Railway Company, Muni hired scores of African-Americans, many recently arrived from the South, as streetcar conductors and motormen. Some, including an aspiring writer named Maya Angelou, soon moved on to other occupations, but many made a career at Muni, though they didn’t seem to get their fair share of promotions.

A man named H. Welton Flynn helped change that. Appointed as the city’s first African-American on any commission in 1970, Flynn—an accountant by profession—expected equity for African-Americans at Muni...and worked tirelessly for it. In 1974, under Flynn’s leadership, Muni appointed the first African-American general manager of a major US transit system. Curtis E. Green, one of those World War II Muni hires (at 90 cents per hour), rose through the ranks after starting as a bus driver. Many African-Americans were to follow Green’s footsteps into top jobs at hundreds of US transit systems, including Muni itself.

Welton Flynn served on commissions governing Muni for almost 30 years, longer than any city commissioner in San Francisco history, and was elected a commission president or chairman a record eight separate times. Besides his tireless advocacy for affirmative action in hiring and contracting, Flynn also pioneered paratransit service in 1979 and spearheaded many improvements in Muni operations and services during his long career.

Following his retirement from public service in 2004, Flynn was honored by numerous organizations for his service, including election to the American Public Transportation Association Hall of Fame in 2006.

Special thanks to MV and 100 Black Men of the Bay Area for sponsoring the onboard display of Driving Equality on F-line streetcar No. 1051.

Museums In Motion is a project of Market Street Railway, Muni’s nonprofit preservation partner. To learn more about how transit helped build San Francisco and keeps the city moving forward, visit the free San Francisco Railway Museum at the Steuart Street F-line stop, south of the Ferry Building.