MARTA Taps Black to Head Transit Agency

November 30, 2000-On Thursday, the Metropolitan Atlanta Transit Authority (MARTA) board voted on its top three candidates for general manager. All three candidates are African American: Nathaniel Ford (Executive Vice President of Operations at MARTA); Robert Prince (GM at Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority), and Gordon Linton (former head of the Federal Transit Administration). The MARTA board selected Nathaniel Ford to run the $300 million transit agency.

Just two months ago, the Metropolitan Atlanta Transportation Equity Coalition (MATEC) presented a strong argument for MARTA to dismantle its "glass ceiling" hiring policy for African Americans. They pointed out that over the past three decades, all five of MARTA's general managers have been white males. African Americans make up 78 percent of MARTA's staff.

It is ironic that the same day the MARTA board selected its first African American general manager, MATEC, a coalition of eleven black Atlanta organizations, filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation on behalf of their minority and disabled members. "I am pleased the MARTA board selected Mr. Ford as the new general manager. It looks like one of the first substantive issues he will have to address is the MATEC discrimination complaint," said Robert D. Bullard, who directs the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. Bullard and his colleagues at the center have provided research and technical assistance to the MATEC groups over the past two years.

The MATEC organizations charged MARTA with racial discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They also cite MARTA for failing to comply with the federally mandated Americans with Disability Act (ADA). The complainants include a broad array of groups, including some well known civil rights organizations (SCLC, NAACP, and Rainbow/PUSH Coalition), neighborhood organizations (Rebel Forest Neighborhood Task Force, Campbellton Road Coalition, Second Chance Community Services, Inc.), a disabled persons advocacy group (Santa Fe VillasTenant's Association), an environmental organization (Center for Environmental Public Awareness), a youth group (Youth Task Force), and a labor union that represents MARTA drivers (Amalgamated Transit Union Local 732).

MATEC organizer Sherrill Marcus confers with MARTA's new General Manager Nathaniel Ford.