Driving the Green Book
A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Join award-winning broadcaster Alvin Hall on a journey through America’s haunted racial past, with the legendary Green Book as your guide.
For countless Americans, the open road has long been a place where dangers lurk. In the era of Jim Crow, Black travelers experienced locked doors, hostile police, and potentially violent encounters almost everywhere, in both the South and the North. From 1936 to 1967, millions relied on The Negro Motorist Green Book, the definitive guide to businesses where they could safely rest, eat, or sleep.
Most Americans only know of the guide from the 2018 Green Book movie or the 2020 Lovecraft Country TV show. Alvin Hall set out to revisit the world of the Green Book to instruct us all on the real history of the guide that saved many lives. With his friend Janée Woods Weber, he drove from New York to Detroit to New Orleans, visiting motels, restaurants, shops, and stores where Black Americans once found a friendly welcome. They explored historical and cultural landmarks, from the theatres and clubs where stars like Duke Ellington and Lena Horne performed to the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Along the way, they gathered memories from some of the last living witnesses for whom the Green Book meant survival—remarkable people who not only endured but rose above the hate, building vibrant Black communities against incredible odds.
Driving the Green Book is a vital work of national history as well as a hopeful chronicle of Black resilience and resistance.
The book contains 25 outstanding black and white photos and ephemera.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Podcaster Hall debuts with an illuminating history of the mid-20th-century guidebook that advised Black motorists where it was safe to sleep, eat, and refuel in cities and towns across the U.S. Created by talent manager Victor Green and his wife, Alma, The Negro Motorist Green Book was published annually from 1936 to 1967. In an era when Black families traveling along the routes of the Great Migration bought large cars roomy enough to sleep in if they could not find welcoming overnight accommodations, the Green Book aimed "to give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassments and to make his trips more enjoyable," according to the introduction to the 1949 edition. Hall's research includes his own journey from Detroit to New Orleans, with side trips to Cincinnati, Ohio; Nashville, Tenn.; and other cities along the way, where he interviewed residents about "living Black in America then—and now." In Louisville, Ky., author Kenneth Clay recalls walking along Walnut Street, the hub of the city's thriving Black neighborhood, before it was decimated by urban renewal projects in the late 1950s. Throughout, Hall pays moving tribute to the ingenuity and resourcefulness of Black Americans who hit the road, despite the dangers. This historical travelogue inspires and educates. Illus.
