To do so, he used his involvement with the National Association of Letter Carriers to reach out to postal workers across the country to gather information. The demand for the first Green Book was so great that by the publication of the second annual edition in 1937, Green had shifted his focus to a national scope.
Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. (Green lived in Harlem but delivered mail in New Jersey.) He found a model for his publication in the guides for Jewish travelers that appeared in Jewish newspapers. To compile the listing, Green, then age 44, drew on his own firsthand experience as well as recommendations from fellow postal workers. In 1936 he made an attempt to address the problem by producing The Negro Motorist Green Book, a 15-page guide that listed travel-related businesses in metropolitan New York City that welcomed African American customers. The difficulty, embarrassment, and fear that accompanied car travel for Black people became especially apparent to Green after he married a woman from Richmond, Virginia, to which the couple traveled from their home in Harlem.
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To address the uncertainty of attaining lodging, meals, and fuel, African American car travelers brought with them blankets and pillows, extra food, drinks, and gasoline, as well as portable toilets. The landscape was dotted with “sundown towns,” where the presence of people of colour was banned after nightfall. This was seldom the experience for African American travelers during the Jim Crow era, however.īecause segregation was pervasive not just in the South but throughout the country, Black travelers not only met with the inconvenience and humiliation of being turned away from businesses but also had to be ever mindful of the threat of racist violence, including lynching. The proliferation of tourist homes, roadside motels, restaurants, and tourist attractions offered convenience that made it possible for car travel to be a joyful spontaneous adventure for most Americans. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library Digital Library (b15424178)Īutomobile travel exploded in the United States during the mid-20th century as more and more Americans were able to afford cars and had disposable income and leisure time (including paid vacations) that allowed them to explore the country. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!Ĭover of The Negro Travelers' Green Book (1956).Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.
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