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The Negro Motorist Green Book Category: Book Series Wikipedia: The Negro Motorist Green Book Description: A series of books from 1936-1966 (renamed “The Negro Travelers' Green Book" in 1952, commonly just called the “Green Book”) detailing which places black motorists could go that were safe, and which ones were unsafe. Named for original author and publisher Victor Hugo Green, not all covers were green in color. Page Sections: History · Multimedia · Documents · Bibliography · Article Index |
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's The Negro Motorist Green Book page on 3 August 2017, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Negro Motorist Green Book (at times styled The Negro Motorist Green-Book or titled The Negro Travelers' Green Book) was an annual guidebook for African-American roadtrippers, commonly referred to simply as the Green Book. It was originated and published by New York City mailman Victor Hugo Green from 1936 to 1966, during the era of Jim Crow laws, when open and often legally prescribed discrimination against non-whites was widespread. Although pervasive racial discrimination and poverty limited black car ownership, the emerging African-American middle class bought automobiles as soon as they could, but faced a variety of dangers and inconveniences along the road, from refusal of food and lodging to arbitrary arrest. In response, Green wrote his guide to services and places relatively friendly to African-Americans, eventually expanding its coverage from the New York area to much of North America, as well as founding a travel agency.
Many Black Americans took to driving, in part to avoid segregation on public transportation. As the writer George Schuyler put it in 1930, "all Negroes who can do so purchase an automobile as soon as possible in order to be free of discomfort, discrimination, segregation and insult." Black Americans employed as athletes, entertainers, and salesmen also traveled frequently for work purposes.
African-American travelers faced hardships such as white-owned businesses refusing to serve them or repair their vehicles, being refused accommodation or food by white-owned hotels, and threats of physical violence and forcible expulsion from whites-only "sundown towns". Green founded and published the Green Book to avoid such problems, compiling resources "to give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassments and to make his trip more enjoyable."
From a New York-focused first edition published in 1936, Green expanded the work to cover much of North America, including most of the United States and parts of Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. The Green Book became "the bible of black travel during Jim Crow", enabling black travelers to find lodgings, businesses, and gas stations that would serve them along the road. It was little known outside the African-American community. Shortly after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed the types of racial discrimination that had made the Green Book necessary, publication ceased and it fell into obscurity. There has been a revived interest in it in the early 21st century in connection with studies of black travel during the Jim Crow era.
| Date | Media or Collection Name & Details | Files |
|---|---|---|
| 21 February 2019 | Green Book Mapped a Safe Route Through Era of Discrimination Mike Osborne, VOA News |  Article Page - 51.7MB - 2:55 |
| Date | Document Name & Details | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| 1938 edition | The Negro Motorist Green Book | Book ( PDF) 61.9MB · 30 pagesPublisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| 1940 edition | The Negro Motorist Green Book | Book ( PDF) 8.9MB · 50 pages Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| 1946 edition | The Negro Motorist Green Book | Book ( PDF) 21.4MB · 84 pages Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| 1949 edition | The Negro Motorist Green Book | Book ( PDF) 91.9MB · 82 pages Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| Title & Subtitle | Details |
|---|---|
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1936 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1937 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1938 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Content: 30 pages with black & white graphics Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book Availability: Complete Book Online ( PDF) |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1939 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1940 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Content: 48 pages Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book Availability: Complete Book Online ( PDF) |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1941 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1942 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1943 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1944 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1945 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1946 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Content: 81 pages Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book Availability: Complete Book Online ( PDF) |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1947 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1948 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1949 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Content: 81 pages Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book Availability: Complete Book Online ( PDF) |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1950 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| The Negro Motorist Green Book | Year & Type: 1951 Nonfiction Publisher: Victor Hugo Green Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book |
| Ruth and the Green Book | Year & Type: 2010 Childrens' Author: Calvin Alexander Ramsey with Gwen Strauss Illustrations: Floyd Cooper Publisher: Carolrhoda Books Topics: The Negro Motorist Green Book The Negro Travelers' Green Book |
| Date | Article | Author/Source |
|---|---|---|
| 18 September 2016 | Black-owned Travel Sites Today Reflect Black Guidebook of Past  | Marissa Melton, VOA News |
| 21 February 2019 | Green Book Mapped Safe Route Through Era of Discrimination  | Mike Osborne, VOA News |