Today, most folks wouldn't believe unless they saw it, but “The Negro Motorist Green Book” was a necessity for African Americans traveling around the United States during the Jim Crow era when discrimination against “people of color,” especially blacks, ran rampant in the United States. I remember fingering my way through it and asking my father why we needed it. Always, his answer was cryptic and mysterious, but my older made it clear “white folks don’t want us near them.”
Growing up in the Jim Crow era, I knew that in my tiny hometown of Independence, Kansas, that was exactly the case. I saw the signs that said, “White Only, Negro Section and Colored Drinking Fountain,” but I assumed that was just in our town. Traveling with my family to Chicago and St. Louis let me know that the same rules applied and were even worse.
When the first version the “Green Book” appeared in 1936, the level of car ownership among African Americans was expanding rapidly as many blacks drove to avoid segregation and humiliation on public transportation. The black “middle class” was in its infancy and having a car was a way to find work or get to a job without the usual humiliation of sitting in the back of the bus or being harassed while waiting for it.
Racial profiling started long before the term required invention during the late 1980’s. Since blacks could drive and afford cars, African Americans had a long history of inappropriate stoppages, arrests and brutality by the police, especially in the South. In addition to the police, blacks faced real dangers such as physical threats of violence and armed expulsion from “sundown towns,” which posted signs saying, “Niggers be gone by sundown.” The “or else,” was understood by both blacks and whites.
In addition to danger of physical violence, blacks faced a variety of inconvenience and humiliation ranging from being refused accommodation or food by white-owned hotels to white-owned businesses refusing to serve Negroes or even repair their vehicles.
Victor H. Green, a New York mailman and travel agent, published the first “Green Book” in 1936 to help African American drivers avoid running into difficulties or embarrassments and to help make trips more enjoyable and safe. The first “Green Book” was New York focused but eventually grew to cover the entire United States and portion of Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
The book allowed us to find lodgings, businesses and gas stations that would serve us as we traveled. We often stayed at boarding houses or someone’s home on long trips. We were always welcome even though we didn't know most or any of the people we stayed with. We often went off the main highway into small “Negro” towns where we could refuel and use the bathroom without needing to “go out back” to a privy for “coloreds.”
The “Green Book” was largely unknown in white America, but for black drivers, it was a necessity. Taking a trip during the Jim Crow era could easily end in disaster and even death. Organizations such as the NAACP and the Urban League reported lynchings in towns where whites thought of Negroes with new cars as too “uppity” or prosperous. “See the USA in a Chevrolet,” was a popular advertisement during that era, but African Americans, it didn't make a difference if they drove a Chevy, Ford or Chrysler, seeing the USA was like being a pioneer in early America.
The “Green Book” stopped publication shortly after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed the types of racial discrimination that had made the book necessary. Nevertheless, long after the Civil Rights era, black drivers in the United States faced major problems when traveling. To this day, large numbers of blacks avoid small towns when traveling, especially in the South. Nevertheless, the Negro Motorist Green Book served a useful purpose and in many ways, a book of that type could be useful today.
A PDF of the 1949 edition can be downloaded from this site. (Warning: It is quite large)