Building on the enthusiasm for our 2024 Community Ride collaboration with the Greenville Spinners, we are excited to continue in 2025 with monthly rides with varied themes and routes. Biking and walking are great ways to connect with the community and create a strong sense of place, and we look forward to bringing people out to learn some new perspectives and explore less familiar routes for how to get around Greenville using active transportation. Our ride plan is weather dependent, so make sure to follow us on social media (@bikewalkgvl), check out our calendar, and sign up for our email newsletters to stay up to date as plans evolve!
This month’s ride had over 20 attendees, and we enjoyed a 7.5 mile ride around a number of Greenville’s civil rights historical sites in honor of MLK Weekend. We have linked the route here (please note, some of the POI sites are from other Greenville history rides) if you want to check it out! Some route highlights are noted below.
- The route begins in Unity Park, which itself has a long history of segregation and discrimination, and today grapples with the ramifications of gentrification – read more from Furman Alumni and current PhD candidate Asha Marie.
- The route winds by Fluor Field and several baseball history sites; baseball plays a major role in Greenville’s early 20th century history, and the sport remained segregated until the Civil Rights Era. Jackie Robinson visited Greenville in 1959 and helped play a role in desegregation efforts – read more here.
- Did you know that civil rights leader Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville? This route passes by his childhood home in the Haynie-Sirrine neighborhood.
- Riding (or walking) through downtown, one can visit sites with historical markers including Sterling Square, where students from Sterling high school once held lunch counter sit in protests, facing arrest, fines and harassment. The Main Street Library (replaced in 1970 by the Hughes Main Library on College Street), was also desegregated in September of 1960 following brave protests and demonstrations by the Greenville Eight.
We look forward to future collaborations with the Greenville Spinners to share different routes and perspectives of Greenville with the community! If you have suggestions for a community walk or ride, please email them to info@bikewalkgreenville.org.
We are a small 501c3 advocating for safer, more connected and accessible active transportation in Greenville County. You can donate to us here to support our advocacy and programs. Our work is also made possible with the support of community volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering with Bike Walk Greenville, please fill our interest form here.