From segregation to Uber, black-owned cab company celebrates 90 years in Columbia

The Blue Ribbon Cab Co. started up business on the 1000 block of Washington Street in downtown Columbia in 1928.

“That was where black people were,” explains Steve English, corporate secretary for Blue Ribbon. “All the black businesses in Columbia were in the 1000 block of Washington Street.”

Consider the accomplishment of being an African-American owned and run business for 90 years:

▪  Blue Ribbon opened for business one year before Martin Luther King Jr. was born;

▪  Blue Ribbon operated through the Civil Rights Movement that began 26 years after the company started;

▪  In all likelihood, Blue Ribbon cabs drove protesters to the sit-ins at Woolworth and S.H. Kress department stores in downtown Columbia in 1960;

▪  Blue Ribbon had black drivers 35 years before Columbia had its first African-American bus driver

Barbara Dotson started working for Blue Ribbon 40 years ago as a driver. Now she is the president of the company, and says the reason Blue Ribbon has stayed in business for 90 years is simple:

“Good customer service,” Dotson says. “That’s got to be one of the main things that keeps you around.”

For decades, Blue Ribbon was a family affair for many: fathers, sons, uncles, mothers, sisters, etc., would drive for the company. Dotson got into the business because she saw how well her stepfather did driving a cab. English followed in his father’s footsteps, as did his brother. Drivers made enough money to comfortably support families, and send children to college.

For many years, the taxi business in Columbia, like everything else, was segregated.

“White companies rode white customers, and black companies rode black customers,” English says. The exceptions could be if a white customer insisted on using a black company, that was OK. “But not vice versa,” English says.

Cab drivers also had to be careful where they drove; they could drive into white neighborhoods if they were picking up black maids.

“You have to learn how to find a way around it,” English says, referring to all the challenges Blue Ribbon has encountered through its 90 years in business. “It may not be what you want, but you get around it.”

Blue Ribbon has survived more than history; it has weathered competition both in the form of other taxi companies, and the recent emergence of ride-share businesses such as Uber and Lyft. It has thrived despite being restricted to only black customers for the first three decades of its existence, and seeing the popularity of car ownership surge.

“We just kept doing what we do best — serving the people who need our service,” English says.

Times have changed the business. For years, cab drivers would have to wait by phones, “cab stands,” scattered throughout the city. Two-way radios changed that, and now computers and cellphones have revolutionized the business. Where cab drivers once had to know the city better than anyone, now they use GPS.

Generations of families have used Blue Ribbon, and it’s distinctive “wind blue” colored cabs.

“We’ve served grandmothers, mothers and their daughters,” Dotson says.

Through the years, Blue Ribbon cabs have been at their share of historic moments, and experienced their share of stories. Once, Dotson unknowingly drove a bank robber to his heist. She got suspicious when he gave her a large tip in $5 and $10 bills, and saw police cars rushing to the bank where she had driven him. She shared her suspicions with the police.

Those who know and work for Dotson wouldn’t be surprised by her strong sense of ethics. Dotson demands courtesy and good customer service from her drivers; there are signs posted in the office warning folks that profanity is “absolutely” forbidden. And no matter how rude or provoking an angry customer may get with Dotson, she refuses to respond in kind.

“You may have to hit your desk or stomp your foot,” but she never yells or loses her temper with a customer. “We’re real big on customer service. That’s why we’re still here.

“It’s a special business. You’re dealing with all kinds of people.”

The company has been a vibrant part of the Columbia community through decades of changes and events. The company finds many ways to give to the community, including delivering water, food and clothes during the devastating flood in 2015, helping the elderly who can’t afford to pay for rides to medical appointments, and working with various charity organizations in town.

“We do a lot of outreach and community service,” Dotson says. “We try to give back to the community.”

Perhaps it’s rather apropos that the current headquarters for Blue Ribbon on North Main Street sits across the street from the original site of Monteith School, which was moved and now sits less than a mile down the road.

The former black school was founded by the mother of the late Modjeska Monteith Simkins, a civil rights and community activist in Columbia who also was an advocate for the poor. And who knows? A Blue Ribbon cab could have driven Modjeska around Columbia, or her niece, Henrie Monteith, who in 1963 was one of the first three African-American students at the University of South Carolina since the reconstruction era.

But Blue Ribbon didn’t just give history a ride. It’s a part of Columbia’s history as well.

This story was originally published February 22, 2018 at 4:10 PM with the headline "From segregation to Uber, black-owned cab company celebrates 90 years in Columbia."