If you have looked at our webpage, you know that we love travel. Between the two of us, we have traveled up and down the East Coast and driven across country to the West Coast. We have cruised the majestic Alaskan coastline and, to top it off, we have traveled together overseas to extraordinary cities such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Beijing and Shanghai, Rome, Paris and Guadalajara. The world is big! And there is much joy and enlightenment visiting a new city or area.
But, as many of you know, it wasn’t always like this. During segregation, travel by black families could be extremely intimidating, if not outright dangerous. In Southern towns, threatening “Whites Only” signs were common and denied black travelers access to hotels, gas stations, restaurants, restrooms and water fountains. Discriminatory laws and practices by American businesses prevented blacks from accessing these essential travel services. For blacks, stopping at these establishments while traveling carried the risk of threats, humiliation and physical harm. To ensure access to safe and friendly accommodations, black families relied on “The Negro Motorist Green-Book”, a travel guide that listed a network of businesses and establishments that welcomed black travelers.
A burgeoning U.S. economy after World War II afforded more middle class blacks the opportunity to purchase cars. Car ownership gave middle-class consumers the freedom to travel throughout the country. But for black travelers in particular, the freedom of car travel carried a unique level of personal security, as described by the National Park Service:
“[T]o African Americans, owning a car had the added significance of providing a degree of protection from both the potential physical and emotional harms of traveling through America’s segregated public spaces. The real and immediate threat associated with getting stranded in one of thousands of ‘sundown towns’, all-white communities that banned black people from entering after dark, represented one extreme of the types of danger motorists could encounter. But even if physical harm was not an issue, the potential harassment one could face or the humiliation associated with, for example, being forced to go to the back door of a restaurant, was significant.”
The Green Book tried to help motorists avoid all types and degrees of harm. The Green Book was founded by Victor Green, a New Jersey postal employee, and his wife Alma. Published from 1936 to 1966, the book listed motels, restaurants, gas stations and other businesses that served blacks to help them travel safely through Jim Crow America. Mr. Green used his contacts developed in his work with the Postal Service and input from black travelers and business owners to compile his guidebook. To ensure its wide distribution, Mr. Green partnered with James Jackson, a black marketing executive at Standard Oil Company, to sell the Green Book at Esso gas stations. Esso was the rare, large company that, at that time, welcomed black customers and employed black men. Through this partnership, the Green Book, by 1962, had a circulation of over 2 million nationwide.
The Green Book was revolutionary in giving black travelers the opportunity to patronize businesses that they knew would treat them with respect and dignity and gave businesses access to a targeted customer base. For example, for Maryland the1936 Edition lists hotels, tourist homes (i.e., B&Bs), night clubs, restaurants, beauty and barber shops in Annapolis, Frederick, Hagerstown, and Salisbury. Over time, the Green Book’s business listings expanded to appeal most exclusively to the vacation needs of its readers by including golf courses, country clubs, state and national parks and other recreational entities. Businesses could take out enlarged ads in the Green Book.
Special editions of the Green Book focused on modes of travel. In 1951, a special edition focused on rail travel, and in 1953 there was an edition on air travel. By 1962, the Green Book expanded its coverage beyond the continental United States, providing information on hotels, motels, restaurants, tourist homes and vacation resorts that accommodated black families in Bermuda, Canada, Haiti, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Caribbean. The Green Book extolled the value of travel and the importance of advanced planning: “You must plan and save for a vacation. An haphazard vacation is no fun. Take with you a genuine interest, an open mind – leave the critical one at home * * *.”
The Green Book promoted social action. As early as 1947, when black World War II veterans were being denied entry to white colleges, the Green Book listed 106 black colleges, state-by-state, that would welcome applications for their admission. The issue listed sources of educational financial support for black GIs, stating:
“The educated Negro was once a rarity. His numbers are increasing year by year, and his contributions to the arts, science and education steadily gain a wider and juster recognition for his abilities. From these we all gain, regardless of color. And, as we mutually put a proper, unprejudiced estimate on the contributions of all races to the common good, we move surely closer to the goal of living together in harmony.”
A later edition of the Green Book (1963-64) featured a section on “Your Rights, Briefly Speaking”, a state-by-state summary of the civil rights laws. The section discussed the civil rights protections afforded blacks in each state, and penalties for violations of the law.
The Green Book editions are intriguing historical documents that reveal the minimal availability of businesses that accommodated black families and travelers. There is a
documentary on the Green Book that you can access online. The brilliance of Mr. Green and his development of the Green Book underscores the strength and resilience of blacks in confronting de jure segregation and targeted, intentional discriminatory practices that impeded the access of black families to public accommodations and services. With the enactment of civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations, businesses that had previously barred black customers became open to them. A by-product of those advances was the closing of many black-owned businesses. “Expanded access and expanded choice * had the practical effect of driving business away from many Black-owned establishments, and eminent domain used by governments to seize land for urban renewal and freeway projects added to the problem.”
The Green Book gives important lessons on community resilience in the fight for civil rights and shapes our understanding of American history and the role of blacks in impacting the country’s advancement to freedom and justice.
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