Public transportation did not operate in neighborhoods where most black people lived. Twenty-two competing jitney owners provided transportation for black workers. On April 24, 1926, Clarence T. Woodland organized a meeting of all the jitney owners to join forces and form a single company. After an initial meeting, 13 operators pledged their life savings to form the Safe Bus Company. Men were from all over the country, particularly the South, came to work as drivers. Safe Bus became the largest Black owned transportation service in the world at that time.
Mary Miller Burns, daughter of founder Elijah Miller, became the first woman president in 1959 and was succeeded in 1960 by Delphine Morgan, widow of founder, Ralph Morgan.
In 1968 Safe Bus provided transportation to all city residents. Integration and old attitudes about segregation made it difficult for the company to make a profit. In 1972 the city of Winston-Salem purchased the Safe Bus Company.