Speaker 1: Right now, it's time for the Way Black History Fact.
Speaker 1: And today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Underground
Speaker 1: Beach Club. From Streets to the Beach with the latest
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Speaker 1: comes from history dot com and we're pull it from
Speaker 1: History dot com. This man talk to them. It's just
Speaker 1: so clean and so right there. You don't got to
Speaker 1: do nothing. It's not Qan Rams' opinion. Ready to read
Speaker 1: dot com. That's what they own, all right. Uh. The
Speaker 1: green Book Black Travelers Guide to Jim Crow America. Though
Speaker 1: for those that didn't know, we're about to share. For
Speaker 1: nearly thirty years, a guide called the Negro Motorist green
Speaker 1: Book provided African Americans with advice on safe places to
Speaker 1: eat and sleep when they traveled through the Jimcrow era
Speaker 1: United States. Quote. There will be a day sometime in
Speaker 1: the near future when this guide will not have to
Speaker 1: be published. That is, when we as a race will
Speaker 1: have equal opportunities and privileges in the United States. It
Speaker 1: will be a great day for us to suspend this publication.
Speaker 1: But then we can go wherever we please and without
Speaker 1: embarrassment unquote. To believe the author of that quote thought
Speaker 1: that that day would have come and gone already, we
Speaker 1: are still trying to get there. Well, okay, let me
Speaker 1: keep you going. That was how the authors of the
Speaker 1: Negro Motors Green Book ended the introduction to their nineteen
Speaker 1: forty eight edition and the pages that followed. They provided
Speaker 1: a rundown of hotels, guesthouses, and service stations, as well
Speaker 1: as drugstores, taverns, barbershops, and restaurants that were known to
Speaker 1: be safe ports of call for African American travelers. The
Speaker 1: Green Book listed establishments in segregationist strongholds such as Alabama
Speaker 1: and Mississippi, but its reach also extended to Connecticut. From
Speaker 1: Connecticut to California, any place where its readers might face
Speaker 1: prejudice or danger because of their skin color. With Jim
Speaker 1: Crow still looming over much of the country, a model
Speaker 1: on the guid's cover also doubled as a warning carry
Speaker 1: your Green Book with you, you may need it. First
Speaker 1: published in nineteen thirty six, the Green Book was the
Speaker 1: brainchild of Harlem based postal carrier named Victor Hugo Green.
Speaker 1: Like most African Americans in the mid twentieth century, Green
Speaker 1: had grown weary of the discrimination black space whenever they
Speaker 1: ventured outside their neighborhoods. Rates of car ownership had exploded
Speaker 1: in the New Years before and after World War Two,
Speaker 1: but the lure of the interstate was also fraught with
Speaker 1: a risk. For African Americans. White's only policies meant that
Speaker 1: black travelers couldn't find safe spaces to eat and sleep,
Speaker 1: and so called sundown towns or municipalities that banned blacks
Speaker 1: after dark were scattered across the country. As the forward
Speaker 1: of the nineteen fifty six edition of the Green Book noted,
Speaker 1: the white traveler has no difficulty in getting accommodations but
Speaker 1: the negro. But with the Negroes it has been different. Sorry.
Speaker 1: Inspired by early books published for Jewish audiences, Green developed
Speaker 1: a guide to help Black Americans indulgent travel without fear.
Speaker 1: The first edition of his Green Book only covered hotels
Speaker 1: and restaurants in the New York area, but he soon
Speaker 1: expanded its scope by gathering field reports from fellow poster
Speaker 1: carriers and offering cash payments to readers who sent in
Speaker 1: useful information. By the early nineteen forties, the Green Book
Speaker 1: boasted thousands of establishments across the country, all of them
Speaker 1: either black owned or verified to be non discriminatory. The
Speaker 1: nineteen forty nine guide encouraged motorists passing through Denver to
Speaker 1: stop for a bite at the dew Drop. In I
Speaker 1: was looking for a bar. In Atlanta area were told
Speaker 1: to dry the Yeah Man, Sportsman Smoke Shop or Butler's.
Speaker 1: In Richmond, Virginia, rest A Bit was the go to
Speaker 1: spot for a ladies beauty parlor. The Green Books listings
Speaker 1: were organized by state and city, with the vast majority
Speaker 1: located in major metropolis is such as Chicago and Detroit.
Speaker 1: Motown or more remote places had fewer options. Alaska only
Speaker 1: had a loan entry in the nineteen sixty guide, but
Speaker 1: even in cities with no black friend the hotels, the
Speaker 1: book often listed the address of homeowners who were willing
Speaker 1: to rent rooms, and nineteen fifty four it suggested that
Speaker 1: visitors to a tiny Roswell, New Mexico town should stay
Speaker 1: at the home of a missus Mary Collins. I want
Speaker 1: you to check out the movie Green Book for more
Speaker 1: on this, or checkout history dot com the rest of
Speaker 1: this article, because obviously we can't finish it, but this
Speaker 1: is a fascinating piece of American history. I don't even
Speaker 1: want to call it black history because it's funny how
Speaker 1: we teach that American history is American history. But I
Speaker 1: want you to check out more on this, so please yep.