“I hope this isn’t a sundown town.” She whispered quietly to him. Their hands rested together between them on the Caribbean blue vinyl front seat of their brand new 1958 Packard. Her thumb rubbed the back of his hand tensely as she spoke.
The road ahead was dark. He lifted his hand away to rub his eyes after giving hers a reassuring pat. He couldn’t rub the blurriness away. He’d been driving for eight hours without stopping, tired eyes peering through the dark, searching for a sign that said, “Coloreds Welcome.”
The road trip they had dreamed of was quickly turning to a nightmare he thought to himself, as the reflection in the rear view mirror revealed red and blue flashing lights coming up behind him.
He pulled over to the side of the road. “What are we stopping for?” She asked nervously as the Police car raced by them.
“I think we should take a look at that Green Book.” He said.
This little work of fiction could have been your reality if you were African American living in the United States during the mid twentieth century. It was a time of racial segregation and African American travel was rife with difficulties.
Restaurants turned away people of colour, hotels did not accept non-white guests, and even gas station toilets were off limits in many cases.
Knowing the difficulties, Victor H. Green published a travel guide directory aimed at keeping African American travellers safe on the road. The book was published each year between 1936 and 1967 with additional editions in some years. Originally called The Negro Motorists Green Book and later The Negro Travelers’ Green Book. It came with a warning to, “Carry your Green Book with you…you may need it.”
Mr. Green a postal worker who later became a travel agent constructed the idea of the Green Book around black travellers’ need for safety and enjoyability during an especially difficult time for people of colour. Other members of society, like the Jewish had suffered similar discriminations and therefore had similar publications giving light to the idea of The Green Book.
All the information in the travel guide was collected via mail in that day and Green used his network of postal workers to gather information and pass on the word. As the popularity of the travel guide grew, so did the listings. The first edition contained only listings in New York, Green’s home city, which then expanded to include the whole United States and some countries beyond, including three hotel listing in Niagara Falls, Canada in the 1966 edition.
The Green Book provided state by state listings of hotels, restaurants, and stops where African American travelers were accepted without degradation and embarrassment, making for somewhat safer travels. It also outlined some of the sundown towns. Places where people of colour were not allowed out on the streets after dark.
Can you imagine travelling under such conditions? Many did. You might wonder why people would choose to travel under these conditions, but experiencing a place outside of your own hometown is something many of us are drawn to.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain
Travel allows us to broaden our thinking, experience other cultures and appreciate the beauty of our world. Additionally, many people in the past mid century travelled for work. Travelling salesmen were common and road travel was very popular with the advent of large luxury automobiles in the 1940s and 1950s. Air travel was still economically out of reach for most people, and this led to road trips being the favoured travel choice.
Victor Green’s Green Book was a handy tool for people of colour during this time and was featured in the Oscar winning film, Green Book, which told the story of legendary pianist Don Shirley and his road trip tour through the deep south with his white skinned Italian chauffeur Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga, who also acted as Mr. Shirley’s bodyguard.
As they travelled from venue to venue the two encountered many acts of racism. Some seemingly benign, and accepted for that time, like having to stay at separate hotels because Mr. Shirley was black, while encountering other more overt examples such as a bar brawl where Mr. Shirley was beaten by racist southern white men for entering the premises. They were once also jailed for driving through a Sundown Town.
The result of their weeks spent together, circumventing and overcoming these horrifying experiences, was a lifelong friendship and appreciation of each other.
The interesting part is that Mr. Vallelonga was shown to be somewhat intolerant of black people to begin with, but the time spent together meant they both began to understand each other and develop a bond built on a human connection that rises above the shallow surface of physical appearance and skin colour.
Though we have gained some ground from the days of racial segregation and the necessity of the Green Book, we still have a very long way to go to understanding each other and rising above the shallow. Perhaps we need to spend more time just being together with people we view differently than ourselves. Allowing differences to dissipate and a true human connection to be forged.
Let us hope that as we begin to travel once again post pandemic, it will become more and more accessible and those who need it most will broaden their horizons to enable the death of prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.
In the 1936 edition of the Green Book Victor Green wrote, “There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges in the United States.”
Are we there yet?
Feature Image thanks to photographer, Courtney Cook
All book images thanks to The New York Public Library – Digital Collection, accessible here
Read more about The Green Book Travel Guide and Victor H. Green here
the Green Book | History, Facts, & African American Travel | Britannica
Watch a trailer of the Universal Pictures movie, Green Book here with Mahershala Ali as Don Shirley and Viggo Mortensen as Frank Vallelonga.
Life with Alegria 
How did I now know about this book? I’l have to watch the movie.
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It is available on Netflix, if that makes it easier to access. Let me know your thoughts when you’ve watched it. I loved it!
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I had no idea this book existed, but it makes sense for the times. Very interesting post! Cady
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Thanks very much Cady! Yes, very interesting times and a great idea by Victor Green to come up with this idea.
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I had no idea this book existed, and I’m definitely going to look for the film! Couldn’t agree more with what you say about travel, I’ve experienced it first hand living in Italy starting from assumptions about the culture based on stereotypes to a much deeper understanding of the history, the attitudes and the dynamics that make up Italian culture, and despite the differences at the end of the day they’re just people. I think the same can be said for cultural diversity, no matter how different cultures may be, the uniting thread is our humanity and we all have a lot to learn from each other.
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Thank you for your thoughtful message Danell. I do believe stereotypes are a generalization that may or may not be true of an individual’s behaviour. The important point is getting to know each other on the individual level, as you mentioned. As the movie illustrated, time spent together means we develop deeper understandings of each other, that goes beyond stereotypical beliefs and ideologies. Travel really does allow that. In fact, Victor Green in his Green Book travel guide would often refer to the same famous quote from Mark Twain. Victor too believed in travel as a mind-broadening activity.
Thanks for your message. I’m so jealous you live in Italy. 🙂
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We’ve moved on since then, but there’s still a way to go. I was unaware of the book, but I’ll be looking for the film on Netflix, that’s for sure.
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That’s great Keith. Feel free to share your thoughts when you watch it. I loved the movie. You’re right, there’s still a way to go.
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Excellent post! We recently watched that film and really liked it. Your post adds a lot of info about the Green Book that I wasn’t aware of. While we had (have?) plenty of racism and prejudice in the UK, we never had the legalised segregation that made such a publication necessary.
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It is quite a fascinating time in US history and though a dark period, shining a light on these issues allows them to escape the darkness and provides insight into current happenings.
Thank you very much for your visit Sarah!
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I haven’t seen that movie, but I must try to track it down. It did get good reviews over here. Thanks for the reminder, Mel
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Thanks for your visit Mel. I believe it is currently available on Netflix, so if you have a subscription you’ll find it there. Hope you do watch. Let me know your thoughts when you do. Thanks for reading!
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Thanks for the tip. I may have to venture out into the backyard and into the Husband’s Man Cave. He has Netflix in there, but not in our house!!
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Lol well enjoy it wherever you watch.
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Excellent post.
When the movie Green Book came out, that was the first I’d heard about the actual Green Book and its purpose. Sadly, I wasn’t surprised it was necessary. We (in the U.S.) haven’t come far enough since, and still have a long way to travel to that destination called quality.
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Thanks very much for reading Rebecca. It’s awful isn’t it, how far apart people are in their thinking. After all the other progress we’ve made in other ways we humans find it impossible to be humane. Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
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It’s a strange history that the USA has, that led to these dreadful times, not so very long ago, and we’re a long way from tolerance and acceptance if recent events are anything to go by. It’s bizarre, isn’t it, that skin colour and religion can still divide us so? There are so many bigger problems to solve, and we’d do much better by pulling together.
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You’ve offered a poignant reply Jo, thank you. Pulling together is a simple and effective solution, though it seems to escape us. Look at the situation with COVID, same issue. Too many opinions and too much self concern. Thanks for reading!
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