‘Green Book’ inspires new generation of Black travel guides, podcasts – By Morgan Hines (USA Today) / Feb 18 2021
In the wake of the Oscar-winning movie and with nods to the book’s heritage, modern authors highlight Black-owned businesses and travel experiences.
At a time when the simple act of traveling through the United States often put Black people in physical danger, “The Negro Motorist Green Book” was an essential guide to safe spaces.
Published by Victor Hugo Green annually from 1936 to 1966, the book helped Black travelers in the Jim Crow period find hotels, restaurants, gas stations and other businesses that would serve them.
The Academy Award-winning movie “Green Book” renewed interest in the publication, which had ceased publishing after major civil rights legislation passed in the 1960s. Today, a new generation of authors are illuminating the heritage with new books and a podcast decades after Green’s annual guide stopped publishing.
“The Green Book enabled African Americans to travel with dignity and find safe harbors during a period in U.S. history when the vast majority of white-owned businesses, even in large urban areas, were not welcoming, even hostile, to Black patrons,” said Alvin Hall, host of the Macmillan Podcast series, “Driving the Green Book,” which launched in September.
Establishments in the book, most of them Black-owned, “welcomed not only their dollars but were also genuinely welcoming to them as human beings, an experience that could be hard to find during the days of segregation,” Hall said.
