Racism and freedom of movement

The following list of articles is a subsection of a larger list, Systemic racism and entrenched social bias. That list, in turn, is Part 2 of On microaggressions and racial issues, particularly in the lifestyle: A resource for White people.

As automobiles became less expensive, Americans took to the roads, traveling across the U.S. as sightseers on vacation, or just to satisfy their wanderlust. But for Black Americans, the ability to travel freely was curtailed by the difficulty of finding a places to spend the night. So-called "sundown towns" also made travel more difficult. Beginning in the 1930s and continuing until passage of the Civil Rights Act, travel guides for Black motorists offered invaluable lists of hotels and private homes that would accept Black lodgers — as well as restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses serving Black travelers. Some also offered safety tips. Two of these guides were published by U.S. government agencies, but the best known (today at least) was the "Green Book."

Travel guides for Black motorists

This section might appear to have more links than it needs. But each article contains additional information. Moreover, the difficulties and risks faced by Black motorists — particularly during a golden age of travel for other middle class Americans — is emblematic of the difference between their world and the many freedoms experienced by White Americans.

• By far, the best, most detailed overview of lodging for Black motorists is Accommodations “For Colored”, by Lyell Henry, SCA Journal, Fall 2005, Vol. 23, No. 2. (The SCA is "an all-volunteer membership organization that celebrates the living history of America’s roadside." The article includes a detailed end notes and cites primary sources.)

• For an excellent overview of Black mobility in America, watch Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America, a two-hour PBS documentary, Oct. 13, 2020. (This documentary is based on Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights, by Gretchen Sorin, Liveright Publishing, NY, 2020)
  RELATED: Review: ‘Driving While Black’ Opens Road to Civil Rights, by Russell Contreras, The AFRO, Mar. 1, 2020.

• The Green Book: The Black Travelers’ Guide to Jim Crow America, by Evan Andrews, The History Channel website, Feb. 26, 2017. A superficial history of The Green Book.

• An atlas of self-reliance: The Negro Motorist's Green Book (1937-1964), by Jay Driskell, National Museum of American History, Jul. 30, 2015. "... the Green Book was also an atlas of black self-reliance. Each motel, auto repair shop, and gas station was a monument to black determination to succeed in a Jim Crow nation. "

• The real story behind {the movie} Green Book, by Shradha Shahani, Condé Nast Traveller, Mar. 01, 2019.

• Green Book Encore: Traveling While Black, uploaded to YouTube by Joseph Coohill ("Professor Buzzkill") on Feb. 26, 2019. ("Professor Cotten Siler joins us to discuss the difficulties and hazards faced by African-American motorists in the 20th Century while traveling in the United States, especially during the height of segregation and Jim Crow. Specifically, in this episode we’re going to talk about how important guides like the Negro Motorist Green Book and the popular Travelguide: Vacation and Recreation Without Humiliation were to the reality of 'traveling while black.'")

• The Negro Motorist Green Book (1936-1964), contributed by Harry Tunnell, BlackPast.org, Jul. 29, 2014.

• A downloadable copy of The Negro Motorist Green Book, 1949, from The Henry Ford Archive of American Innovation.

• The Negro Motorist Green-Book, Victor H. Green Publisher, New York, 1941. A readable slideshow copy hosted by the Smithsonian Institute.

• About Comics a publisher of ("things that ought to be published") offers reprints of several editions of The Green Book, including 1962 (the first year Disneyland was included as "an accessible location"), and "Travelers’ Green Book: International Edition 1963-1964" (the last edition of the series).

• Flagstaff, Route 66 and the Green Book, by Sean Evans & Gretchen McAllister, posted on Discover Flagstaff, which is "part of the Economic Vitality Division of the City of Flagstaff."

• The New York Public Library Digital Collections houses annual editions of "Travel Guide: Authentic Guidance for ALL Peoples" (sic), published by TRAVELGUIDE, Inc., NY, from 1947 through 1962-1963.

• Travelguide: Vacation and Recreation Without Humiliation, by Jennifer Reut, savingplaces.org (a website of The National Trust for Historic Preservation), Feb. 18, 2019. "Travelguide also included a brief summary of each state’s Civil Rights laws and other tips for travelers." (See also: Green Book Stories, a page of savingplaces.org)

• Travel Guide to Negro Hotels and Guest Houses in the eastern USA, published by Afro-American Newspapers, 1942. (Housed in the New York Public Library Digital Collections. For a readable copy of the map, see this reddit upload.)

• A Colored Man's Journey Through 20th Century Segregated America, by Earl Ofari Hutchinson Sr., Middle Passage Press, 2000. (Note: Although I haven't had a chance to read this book yet, I include it here because it turned up in my search for information on The Negro Motorist Green Book. For a review, see Two Centenarian “Brothers” Publish Memoirs of the Century, by Max Millard, Free Press.org, Autumn 2000.)

• "The Roosevelt administration published its own Directory of Negro Hotels and Guest Houses in the United States, through the National Park Service. Notably, around the same time, the Department of the Interior compiled a directory of black lodging for the ‘convenience of Negro Travelers.’" (See A Travel Guide Just For Black Americans, by Steven Heller, DesignObserver, Aug. 5, 2020.)

Sundown towns and other jurisdictional restrictions on Black people

• Sundown Town, a Wikipedia entry.

• Geographic Map of Historical Sundown Towns, an interactive map showing jurisdictions that are "possible," "probable," and "surely" sundown towns. (This map is a page of the Tougaloo College website. For additional information about sundown towns, visit this page.)

• Was your town a sundown town?, by James Loewen, UU World, Feb. 18, 2008. "How to find out if your community intentionally excluded African Americans."

• Sundown Towns in the United States, "Welcome to the world's only registry of sundown towns," a site created by Matt Cheney; copyrighted by James W. Loewen and heirs (Nick Loewen); hosted by Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, MS; and maintained by Phil Huckelberry and Stephen Berrey.

• How To Confirm Sundown Towns. For bibliographical details, see "Sundown Towns in the United States" (above).

• Kevin Stoda discusses the methodology near the end of his blog, "What is the relationship between being a historical SunDown Town (a town that set out to bar certain races from living within its city limits) and having voted for Donald Trump today?", Eslkevin's Blog, Mar. 18, 2018. (Sadly, he doesn't answer his own question. Instead, the blog is a request that researchers and writers do more investigation into the ways "the ambience or milieu or landscape of our real-existing communities in 2018 is still affected by historical racism." Still, he offers personal insights into sundown towns, as well as expanding on their history across the U.S. — enough to make this blog worth your time)

• You'll find an overview of sundown towns, their history, and their impact on today's communities in this status, by Kat C..

• The Legend of A-N-N-A: Revisiting an American Town Where Black People Weren’t Welcome After Dark, by Logan Jaffe, ProPublica Illinois, Nov. 7, 2019. (This profile of a town in southern Illinois explores its racist history, current racial attitudes, and the experiences of a Black family that chose to move there.)

  • What Readers Told Us About Our Story, “The Legend of A-N-N-A”, by Logan Jaffe, ProPublica, Nov. 15, 2019.

  • A Sundown Town Sees Its First Black Lives Matter Protest, by Logan Jaffe, ProPublica, Jun. 12, 2020. (In this follow-up to the above, it's noteworthy that the Black family interviewed by Jaffe ended up moving out of Anna a year later.)

• Black Codes (United States), a Wikipedia entry.

Loitering laws

• The racist history of loitering laws, by Kat C.

Other resources

• Sundown Towns, search results from the Tougaloo College (MS) website. (A convenient list of resources compiled and created by the late James W. Loewen.)

• Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, NY, 1961. (Griffin's book offers many anecdotal examples of the restrictions and discrimination Black people experienced while traveling in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia during the Jim Crow era.)

Return to Systemic racism and entrenched social bias, (part 2 of On microaggressions and racial issues, particularly in the lifestyle: A resource for White people.)

Originally posted Apr 26, 2020.