Harlem Cab Company

Rockwell Taximeter

Vacant Position

I am Ron Means, a former President, Vice President and General Manager of Harlem Cab Company Inc. Started in 1943 and the brain-child of Mr. George Knox (1907-1974), Harlem Cab was the largest Black-owned taxi company in Austin. His birthday was May 7 just 2 days before mine which made us both Taurus’s.

This web site will tell the story of how I became involved with Harlem Cab, got my parents and brother involved and what happened with dealing with people in the community that led to the name change. I will also talk about a few of the many friends that I met along the way that have helped to keep us focused and grounded in our attempt to preserve our Black Heritage and business acumen... People like Willie Winn, James Norwood, Abraham Hill, Reverend Algie Lee Collins, Kerry Barrs, Ernest Caro, Don Blackmon and Vernon Crayton.

In the beginning I met Mr. Knox around 1964 when I was about 9 years old. He had built a house across the street from my good friend and mentor Mr. Theodore Youngblood. Mr. Youngblood was a former porter with the railroad and bellman of the storied Driskill & Stephen F Austin hotels in downtown Austin. Mr. Youngblood lived two houses down the street from our house on Astor Place and I took a liking to him almost immediately because he had a wealth of knowledge and insights about life. He had gems of wisdom to share with a young kid like me and I always felt that his house was my house. His wife Latatlion Richard Youngblood (nicknamed Tot) was very nice too which only solidified the welcome feeling I had. My parents could find me either at Mr. Youngblood's or Mr. Knox's... learning stuff about life mostly any day that either men were at home. Mr. Knox was tall and skinny and very dark complexioned. He always wore a black hat and a white shirt with dark pants. He was very neat and walked with confidence, speaking with authority whenever we talked. He knew a lot of stuff that I wanted to know, stuff that other old men in the neighborhood didn't want to talk to me about, like slavery, civil rights, the Democrats vs. Republicans, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, H. Rap Brown, Martin Luther King Jr. and all of that kind of stuff. I recall many of the controversial explanations that today, one might view as radical for a Black man to speak of back then, so I figure that Mr. Knox was simply a man that was way ahead of his time. Mr. Knox once shared with me that there were basically 2 types of people, regardless of color or what they did: Shepherds and Sheep. He said there were many Black leaders in a community but that White people wanted to choose for us who they were, to keep us under their control and "in our place" and so the real leaders who refused to be labeled or made into puppets, he explained, were the true leaders. Shepherds and Sheep. Mr. Knox also told me of how he had tried to help another Black cab company survive and that the city council leaders of the day refused to let him save his friend's business. Deluxe Cab was located at 12th & Chicon and was owned by Mr. Randolph Hawkins and his wife Katherine Walton Hawkins. Randy, as we called him, was a very unique person who wore a cowboy hat, tucked his pants inside his boots and always tugged his pants up (like Erkle) when he stood up. He even wore the suspenders but he wore them WITH a belt! He was quite the character and my fond memories keep me smiling. Once you met Randy, you would never forget him because he would talk your ears off, voicing an opinion about anything and everything. I knew him well myself, because he was a friend of my dad’s. Randolph was buying the property where his cab company was located but got behind in his taxes and didn't have the money, about $4,000 to pay the bill. The Austin City Council closed his business so he would lose the property, even though Mr. Knox offered to loan him the money to save his competitor from going out of business. I culled therefore that Mr. Knox was indeed a Saint and the Devil was in the details that hindered his kindness. You do the math on what I mean... In the City of Austin Archives, I read where one of the councilmen stated that Randolph didn't have any business trying to own property, or something to that effect (This statement magnifies the point about people trying to keep US in our "place").

When I asked Mr. Knox about it, he told me that he felt like he would be next, but I didn't understand then what I understand now, having been in his shoes going on 23 years now.

I was intrigued because he had so much knowledge to share that was not necessarily school-learned or popular thinking for Black people.

Mr. Knox was a special friend to me, just like Mr. Youngblood was and I appreciated knowing both of them a whole lot. I value their memory and hope that I can be half as great as they were.

The cars: Everyone knows I am a car nut... Mr. Knox kept several plain Black Chevrolet Biscayne cars at his house and he also sometimes drove a Gold Cadillac Deville that was always clean. I was fascinated with the Biscaynes but didn't really like the fact that they were so plain. They didn't have radios (music) in them. Mr. Knox said that the drivers needed to be listening to the company radio and he didn't want them to be distracted from driving or communicating with the passengers. He told me that he bought new cars every year to replace half his fleet every other year. He wanted his customers to be comfortable and safe. The city had no age limit on cars, so I suppose he did it because he wanted to. Little did I know that the experiences of knowing the many people that worked for him as drivers and management, as well as the customers that depended on Harlem Cab Company were the real facts that made him rich, not the cars or the money. He wasn't really that talkative, but when he did speak: wisdom. Mr. Knox let me cut his grass and he was the first person who ever tipped me. I tried to give it back thinking he made a mistake. He explained that a tip meant that I was doing an excellent job. He said that if I did a poor job, not only would I not get a tip, but he would not use me again either. I was impressed and the lesson stuck with me, to this very day. I always try my best. It's a pride thing. Mr. Knox had a Coke machine in his garage at home and kept several cases of full bottles. There wasn't a visit that went by that I wasn't drinking some Coke. He was very generous. We never really talked about any of his kids (I think he had two) but every once in a while, he'd mention a girlfriend was going out of town with him or something. He had a nephew named "TD" that used to come visit him and sometimes we would play together. I lost contact with him soon after Mr. Knox died. I liked him too. I wonder how he's doing. Sometime before he died, when I asked him who he was going to leave all his stuff to, Mr. Knox told me that he was leaving the company to his manager, Mr. Odis Axel, and his secretary who ran the office, Mrs. Dorothy Heard. He explained that they were the nuts and bolts of the company and it was best left in their hands. He said he was giving his children One Thousand Dollars each and that was all, because they would probably lose the business. He didn't explain further and I remember the pained look on his face when he told me about what he was going to do when he passed away.

Mr. Knox praised Mr. Axel and Mrs. Heard adding that Mr. Axel had helped him build the company and he felt that he owed both of them. He said they worked for practically nothing and he was grateful.

I was disappointed because I wanted him to leave me something too, but as an adult I understand. He rewarded those that did for him.

He rewarded me with tips and lessons and advice and insights into the man. He helped his children, but felt they might squander what he had built. Mr. George Knox was a man with vision, loyalty and class and he made me feel welcome every time I saw him.

After Mr. Knox died, I saw him in the company that he had owned. That's when I wanted to buy it!

Mr. Axel didn't get his ownership of Harlem that he was promised because Mr. Knox' attorney, Mr. James W. Townsend, had Mr. Knox sign half the company over to him as he lay on his death bed to repay a debt.

There is no doubt that Mr. Townsend loaned Mr. Knox money to keep the company afloat, and was a good lawyer by giving advice and doing legal maneuvers. He represented him well, yet I just cringe at the way it happened because Mr. Axel had already been told that he was inheriting Harlem Cab from Mr. Knox!

The company secretary, Mrs. Dorothy Heard, got the other half and kept Mr. Axel as the manager to help run the company as Mr. Knox would have wanted.

I believe that is what transpired, based on conversations with all parties that were there, including one of the witnesses at Mr. Knox's hospital bed, Mr. Jesse Bartlett, the insurance man for Harlem Cab.

Mr. Townsend used to let me come to his office downtown in the Brown Building and I would talk to him about Mr. Knox whenever I wanted. I felt that his door was always open for me. I learned many more things about Mr. Knox and Harlem Cab by talking to Mr. Townsend but he knew that I never really trusted him because of the way that he got the company and that might also have been a factor in why he wouldn't sell it to me. Who knows?

Mrs. Heard, on the other hand, was a very likeable person. Dorothy, as she liked to be called, was short and brown-skinned and pretty. She wore those half-like glasses that some people wear and always had a smile and good things to say. She always encouraged me to do my best.

I remember that it was Dorothy that informed and encouraged me to attend the Taxicab Convention that I attended in Las Vegas in 1981, where I made acquaintance with some of the key people that eventually founded what was once the Taxi Division of Coach USA and is now Texas Taxis, a large corporation that operates cabs in Houston, Austin and San Antonio.

Dorothy had Harlem Cab's best interests at heart and it showed in the long hours and effort that she put forth everyday at the little building that housed the cab company at 1129 East 11th Street.

I was friends with her nephew, the late Chester Gage, which gave us still another connection. Although it wasn't all roses, we both knew that we had a lot in common because of our mutual respect for Mr. Knox and his company.

I got in the cab business an odd way, thru a friend's generosity and help. I wanted to buy the TexMart Texaco gas station that was owned by Mr. Bill Casparis located at 19th and Chicon. I was in college at Huston-Tillotson and was working with my best friend Earl Bryant, Jr. (now known as Castamal Alexander II) when my dad agreed to seed the $18k to procure the service station from Mr. Casparis.

I was devastated when Mr. Calhoun Smith, the distributor, refused to allow the transaction to move forward allegedly because of my "youth". At the time I thought he was predjudiced but I could've been wrong. Back then in the early 1970s there was a lot of bias going on so naturally that was the 1st thought I would've had...

Undaunted, a friend named Reverend Algie Lee Collins, owned another station several blocks away on Manor Road and he financed two cars to a character named Willie Winn. Mr. Winn, after becoming my first driver, went on to becoming the last owner of the Harlem Theatre on East 12th Street before it burned down.

I saw Willie a few years ago and he looks the same and was still stuttering. Suffice it to say, my soon to be ex-father in-law, Reverend Collins, repossessed those two cabs he had sold Willie and got into the cab business in a big way, operating more than twenty cabs on Harlem's line by 1975. With Rev. Collin's help, by 1977, I had more than ten cabs.

I was also working part time as a Deputy Constable for Charlie Jones, a very good friend of mine to this very day. Charlie said that we (He and I) are the only ones from the old days that are left. I was happy that he remembered to include me! Anyway, we were asked to help the FBI follow some radicals around Austin and I borrowed a cab from Harlem to do it, especially since nobody pays attention to cabs very much. It worked too! They never knew they were being watched.

I started driving a little for extra money. Once in the cab business, I learned that I loved it. I made so many friends among the drivers that I can honestly say that I appreciated the ones that are still here and sorely miss the ones that have passed on like James "Putt" Norwood and Abraham "Hamp" Hill. I knew their families and they knew mine. We helped each other and knew that we could depend on each other. We were all like family, even if we didn't really know each other. It was wonderful.

The passengers were a variety of people and I learned that no one is better than anyone else because of your profession. It's who you are, not what you do that counts.

Our character is what defines us.

Ron Means- GM

Harlem Cab Inc. dba Austin Cab

Thank you for your consideration and support.

If you have any pictures or know of any history that has been omitted, please get in touch with us at (512) 478-2222 ext. 111 or e-mail at ronmeans1@yahoo.com

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