The East Rosedale Monument Project in near-south Fort Worth has turned an ordinary bus stop into a work of art and a lesson in the history of the Civil Rights Movement in America.
Artist Christopher Blay took the shell of a 1970s-era gray and white city bus with bold orange and red stripes and turned it into an all-weather shelter at a bus stop in the historically African American neighborhood east of I-35. It is both a joyous monument with silhouettes of children’s heads and arms in the windows, and a solemn reminder of civil rights struggles.
Buses were an integral, but largely unsung, part of the Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties and Seventies. Public transportation was at the heart of the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, the Freedom Riders, and school desegregation busing.
Plaques inside the shelter give a brief history of these events plus reminders of civil rights demonstrations in Fort Worth. Included are biographies of Opal Lee, the retired teacher who is often described as the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” and the Rev. James Reeb, who was beaten to death by white supremacists in Selma, Alabama.
It was a long road from concept to the dedication of the monument on Feb. 1, 2025, for Christopher Blay. He had originally pitched the idea to the Fort Worth Public Art Commission in 2014.
Originally from Liberia, Blay graduated from Texas Christian University in 2003. An artist, curator, and writer, he is director of public programs at the National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, and was formerly chief curator of the Houston Museum of African American Culture.
Blay will have an exhibition of his art in West Texas at Ballroom Marfa from March 7 through June 8.
The East Rosedale Monument Project is at 920 E. Rosedale, a couple of blocks east of I-35.
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This article appears in February 7 • 2025.
