Jackson Traction helps build Transit efforts across America

 Chris Jackson- Together We Go Forward- Transcontinental Launches in North Charleston, SC on Friday, Feb. 4

North Charleston, SC- Now that life over the road has settled down, Chris Jackson is ready to connect struggling transit advocacy efforts across the United States. He will launch the national effort on Feb. 4th. Transit Equity Day at the Rosa Parks Pay it Forward Pancake Breakfast at Mini Sue Sue’s Kitchen at 3910 Rivers Ave, N. Charleston, SC 29405, ph (843) 718-1278, on #10 Bus Line. Look for the gold pop up tent at the edge of the parking lot. 

The breakfast is one of several across the SC Lowcountry and US serving pancakes made with Rosa Parks’ personal recipe. Each breakfast purchased helps a locally owned business and generates an additional pay it forward morning meal for the homeless. 

Image, above, Christopher D. Jackson (In Red) with pickup load of Christmas supplies for Charleston, SC’s homeless and Donna Gill, Dec. 2020

Transit activist and community organizer Chris Jackson earned a CDL during the pandemic and left the comforts of life in Charleston and working with Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit to mount his massive Tractor Truck and begin pulling 80 thousand pounds of cargo over the mountains and across the icy roads of a stricken nation. Chris is the supply chain. Sometimes we call him Action Jackson. 

Chris has a crock pot powered by the tractor's massive APU to assure a warm dinner and sleeps in its homey cab. The sleeper cab of his 405 horsepower Kenworth T680 has everything needed to sustain life on the road. He's Bluetooth connected to his truck and the world. Now he's ready to take the skills and strength he brought to six years of leadership of the legendary lightning crew in your community, In Charleston, SC. Chris helped win the 640 million dollar transit referendum and return transit service back to the beach after 8 years of Lowcountry Transit riders being landlocked. Chris will  encourage and connect our growing constellation of people ready to hammer the infrastructure money about to drop from DC into transit systems and better service across America. 

While Transit riders like regular schedules  and plans, Chris isn't in a position to know when he is going to be there far in advance. His destinations change with every load, keeping the shelves of our stores stocked with what we need. When those shelves are empty, that is where he goes.

Chris will work with our national leadership to identify new and growing efforts to improve transit along the way. During his mandatory breaks and time off driving, he'll meet with transit organizers and try to help encourage new efforts. He'll collect mementos of our national effort to help people move towards better transit and drop them off in another. If you see a Bay Area Transit Rider's T-shirt on the back of a hard working bus route improvement activist in rural Alabama, you will know Chris was there. If you feed him a home cooked meal or help him do laundry, he'll appreciate the favor. If you are sleeping under a bridge, maybe he'll dip into his crock pot and give you some stew. 

Jackson doing street outreach in N. Chs. 2021

You can follow Christopher  D. Jackson on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ElderCJackson

Chris' effort kicks off on Transit Equity Day, Feb. 4, 2022, the Birthday of Rosa Parks. Whereas Rosa Park’s feet were tired, Chris's foot is heavy. He's rolling now. Watch your texts and listen for your phone. A nation of transit advocates rises. Get ready. Together, We Go  Forward!

To be put on the list of places Chris may be able to visit in the future, contact Chris @ 843 277 7958. Be sure to provide a physical address with zip code, email address and voice phone number. 

Rise, Ride and Remember with Rosa, Transit Equity Day in Charleston and the SC Lowcountry

Transit Equity Day on Friday, Feb. 4 in Charleston and the SC Lowcountry will offer supporters of better public transit an opportunity to rise for a pancake breakfast, ride and remember Rosa Parks on her birthday. Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, Inc. will work with transit advocacy groups in Columbia, SC, Atlanta and around the World to renew the right to ride Rosa refused to surrender on that dark bus in Montgomery.

Jenkins (in blue) Training BFLT Interns 

In Memory of Abe Jenkins- We will be dedicating this year's observance of Transit Equity day to the Memory of Abe Jenkins, who volunteered with our organization from time to time, supporting our work on the Sea Islands and mentoring some of our teenaged interns. Abe brought solid wisdom to our training sessions and attempted to persuade Jack to yell at the kids less. We will miss Abe greatly. Abe was the grandson of Civil Rights Leader Esau Jenkins who operated a private rural transportation system predominately used by African Americans. Abe knew Rosa Parks and many great leaders of that time. He carried the lessons learned from them in the midst of the great liberating struggle two decades into the 21st. Century.

Relevant Rosa

Mary Smith, dresssd as Syphide, at CHS Pride

In a time when the very survival of American democracy is threatened, opponents of Civil Rights understand destroying transit neutralizes people who might reinforce the continuing struggle for human dignity here in Charleston. Deciding our planned rapid Transit line doesn't reach Summerville and Lincolnville robs people who need transit there of their power to make choices about their employment, healthcare and political rights. As their lives become harder, gentrification can be accelerated to that a citizens, white and black are so imprisoned by traffic congestion and time lost on the roads that those purchasing control of government can do what they like.

As CAJM has noted, Frequency is Freedom. On her birthday, Rosa Parks reminds us we must be brave, strategic and dramatic in our Transit Equity freedom struggle. We've set major goals from improved transit service, better bus stops and restoration of more of the I26 alt plan for the Lowcountry Rapid Transit line for this year. That fight for freedom starts at breakfast on Feb. 4.

Rise with Rosa Pancake Breakfast

We'll be asking some local diners and cafe's near our major bus lines to make and serve Rosa's own special pancake recipe, Rosa Parks's Featherlight Peanut Butter Pancakes for breakfast that morning. Well be livestreaming breakfast from outside Mini See See's Kitchen, sharing online pancakes and breakfast transit thoughts of the community with the world. Due to a scheduling conflict, JA Moore will hold the Berkeley County Rosa Parks Pancake Brunch on Saturday. 

The price of your Rosa Parks Pay it Forward Pancake Breakfast includes a breakfast care package which will be delivered to local housing insecure persons, elderly and disabled people by our volunteers over the following weekend. We'll also be distributing some bus passes to those struggling, truely an empowering gift of freedom and dignity.

Mini Sue Sue's Kitchen

North Charleston- Mini See See's Kitchen on River's Ave. will be serving Rosa Parks Pancakes from 8 am to 11 am. from their takeout kitchen at 3910 Rivers Ave, N. Charleston, ph (843) 718-1278. Left side of Rivers Ave, North of Cosgrove Ave., on the #10 Bus Line. They're new and eager to build stronger connections to the community. This location is right on the main secton of the long promised and much delayed Lowcountry Rapid Transit Line. Facebook signup for breakfast at Mini Sue Sue's Kitchen.  Chris Jackson's Together, We Go Forward Transcontinental effort launches at this location at 10 am. 

Market St. Deli

Downtown- The Market Street Deli 76 N Market St, Charleston, SC 29401, (843) 577-8830 in  will also be serving a pay it forward breakfast. It's located just a block from two stops on the DASH 211 Bus Line and the #20 upper King. Both buses are fare free. it's a delightful spot for both breakfast and lunch with a local owner and friendly, transit riding staff. Facebook signup for breakfast at Marketplace Deli.  

Breakfast for the Mayor of Summerville

A special pancake breakfast will be delivered to the Mayor of Summerville at his office at Town Hall at 10:00 am by Linda Saylor, with side orders of sausage, juice and demands for return of the planned Lowcountry Rapid Transit Line to Downtown Summerville and a Freedom of Information Request about the Town’s lack of effort to retain their transit connection to the planned system and related issues. The breakfast will be delivered by Summerville Juneteenth and the Alston Heritage Foundation and the Dorchester Unit of Best Friends of Lowcountry Transit, Inc. 

Return here for additional restaurants, food trucks and cafes all over the area. Get your pancakes. You are going to need the energy. It's going to be a big Friday and Brunch on Saturday Too

Ride with Rosa

Chris Jackson with Ride with Rosa Poster

We'll be asking CARTA to reserve a seat so local Transit passengers can ride with Rosa, as they did last year, marking a seat on some buses with a sign and a rose to remind our fellow transit riders of the significance of that special day.

During the weekend Christopher Jackson will launch a nationally sanctioned effort to help connect Transit Advocacy efforts across the US with the help of the Labor Network for Sustainability. While working as an over the road Truck Driver he'll cross the continent helping establish and encourage transit building efforts across the continental US, operating from bases in Charleston, DC, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. The effort will begin at the Mini Sue Sue's Kitchen pancake breakfast on Rivers Ave. (See above) at 10 am.

Raise Awareness with Rosa

During the day, we'll be doing socially distanced transit outreach at bus stops about our goals for better transit in the Lowcountry this year. We'll also be moving our ideas and demands for equity into the physical reality of the Lowcountry. Things will be done. Things will be made and happen which can be touched, felt and used. This is not just about words and ideas. You can't go anyone on those.

We're planning an action to challenge transit inequity in the Summerville, Lincolnville & Ladson area at 1 pm. The exact location will be announced at 6 am on the morning of Transit Equity Day. 

These are our current goals for the 2022:

• Secure another year of bus service to the beach. Double ridership.

• Support increasing CARTA Ridership by 30%. Get more middle school aged students on transit.

• 

  Improved Bus Stop in Mt. Pleasant

  Push the Lowcountry Rapid Transit line terminus back North to Lincolnville, near the Charleston County line, walking distance from Summerville. Read the details.

• Obtain at least 10 more lighted and sheltered bus stops on the CARTA system, 2 on the Sea Island LINK system and 2 in Summerville.

• Support Christopher Jackson, now a long haul truck driver, in a continental effort to connect transit advocacy organizations across the nation is a “Together We Go Forward.” campaign starting that day somewhere out on the American road.

• Fight to force local governments to build the promised Lowcountry Rapid Transit line and have it operational before work begins on widening I526. Details on this Issue and options for action.

Revel with Rosa Birthday Party

Finally, we'll hold an evening birthday party for Rosa Parks at The Blackstone Restaurant on Rivers Ave. where you'll be able to buy a commemorative dinner supporting our efforts and have some of a special birthday cake made for the occasion, provided in a way which is safe in current pandemic conditions. This effort will honor the Food and Beverage workers who ride transit and have supported our local hospitality economy through the pandemic. Your host will be SC State Rep. Marvin Pendarvis.

We'll try to have drumming, music and spoken word performances focusing on social and economic justice starting at 6:30 pm. Everyone participating in our effort should be masked, vaccinated or recently tested and maintain social distance. We have a Facebook Event signup page for this event online. 

We recognize a large indoor gathering with sit down dinner may not be possible. We'll do the best we can under the circumstances.

Remembering Rosa & The Lowcountry's Own Transit Heroes

Rosa Parks is most remembered as the woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery Alabama, igniting the Montgomery Bus Boycott and launching the career of Civil Rights Titan, Martin Luther King. However her dedication to human dignity began long before that event and transcends the idealized fairy tale of a humble woman who was too tired to stand disseminated about her at the time. She was a battle hardened, trained activist who investigated lynching's in backwoods towns in the deep south, often working alone for the NAACP. She was an exceptional communicator, skilled at talking people down from anger and up from apathy. She was a successful seamstress. She was fashionable, creative and smart.

Rosa Parks wasn't the first woman to refuse to surrender her seat on Southern public transit. African American women had been fighting for Transit Equity since 1867 when women like Mary Bowers in Charleston fought for and won their right to ride horse drawn streetcars. Other women in Montgomery has already been arrested. Parks brought nerve, a capacity for calculation and the ability to sustain a strategy to the fight for freedom. Her skills allowed her to survive the conflict at great personal cost. Other women, equally worthy, were nearly destroyed in similar circumstances. Sarah May Fleming fought for Transit Equity in Columbia, SC, won her court case but paid a terrible personal price for her stand. 

Rosa reminds us that we must all fight, win and survive in our struggle for human dignity. Sacrifice alone is not enough. 

Don't Give Up Your Seat, Together, We Go Forward!

Completing this effort while keeping everyone safe needs your input and support. We'll update this blogpost with links to the particular events. Feel free to contact William Hamilton wjhamilton29464@gmail.com or (843) 870-5299 with your input. Complete information on all our activities can be found at www.bfltransit.com. 

Tax deductible contributions to support this effort and better Transit in the Lowcountry can be made on Act Blue at https://secure.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/87568