1
00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,080
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,

2
00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:11,240
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Boglebom. When author and playwright Calvin Alexander Ramsey

3
00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:13,800
Speaker 1: was growing up in Baltimore in the nineteen fifties, he

4
00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:16,560
Speaker 1: never really questioned why his family, like all other black

5
00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:19,560
Speaker 1: families he knew, would leave for vacation car trips at

6
00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:21,800
Speaker 1: two or three in the morning, and he never thought

7
00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:24,040
Speaker 1: twice about the fact that the family always slept at

8
00:00:24,079 --> 00:00:26,599
Speaker 1: private homes instead of hotels, used to the side of

9
00:00:26,600 --> 00:00:28,680
Speaker 1: the road as a restroom, and packed their own food

10
00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:31,920
Speaker 1: with them for the length of the journey. Only years

11
00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,400
Speaker 1: later did Ramsey realize that his parents avoided restaurants, gas stations,

12
00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:38,040
Speaker 1: and hotels in order to protect him from the racist

13
00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:41,120
Speaker 1: degradations and very real dangers of traveling while black in

14
00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:45,320
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties America. Until the nineteen sixty four Civil Rights

15
00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:47,800
Speaker 1: Act formally ended segregation and made it a crime to

16
00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:50,640
Speaker 1: discriminate on the basis of skin color, the tradition of

17
00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:53,440
Speaker 1: the Great American road trip was very different for families

18
00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:57,360
Speaker 1: of color. Black motorists traveling outside of major city centers

19
00:00:57,400 --> 00:00:59,520
Speaker 1: had no way of knowing whether the local service station

20
00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:02,160
Speaker 1: would sell gas or if there were any restaurants serving

21
00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:06,479
Speaker 1: black customers within a hundred mile radius. In nineteen thirty six,

22
00:01:06,520 --> 00:01:09,080
Speaker 1: a black mailman living in Harlem, New York, decided to

23
00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:12,639
Speaker 1: do something about it. Inspired by Jewish publications that listed

24
00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:14,920
Speaker 1: safe places for Jewish travelers to eat and sleep on

25
00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:18,080
Speaker 1: the road, Victor Hugo Green published the first edition of

26
00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:21,080
Speaker 1: the Green Book. Inside the pages of the Green Book,

27
00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:24,200
Speaker 1: black travelers could find state by state listings of hotels

28
00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:27,919
Speaker 1: and private tourist homes to spend the night, plus restaurants, barbershops,

29
00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:32,199
Speaker 1: service stations, and stores where their business was welcome. Calvin

30
00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:35,080
Speaker 1: Alexander Ramsay, who wrote a popular children's book in two

31
00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:37,560
Speaker 1: called Ruth and the Green Book, as well as a

32
00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:40,440
Speaker 1: play about the Green Book, explains that Green relied on

33
00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:43,840
Speaker 1: a network of fellow blackmailmen across the country to compile

34
00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:47,400
Speaker 1: listings of businesses and private residents, and then mailed addresses

35
00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:49,640
Speaker 1: back to Green's wife and Harlem, who would add them

36
00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:52,880
Speaker 1: to the always expanding publication. A new edition of the

37
00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:55,320
Speaker 1: Green Book was published every year from nineteen thirty six

38
00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:58,280
Speaker 1: through nineteen sixty four and sold at black owned ESSO

39
00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:02,320
Speaker 1: service stations. The Green Book was a lifeline for black travelers,

40
00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:05,200
Speaker 1: many of whom carried fresh memories of humiliation at the

41
00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:07,400
Speaker 1: hands of white business owners. And not only in the

42
00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:10,400
Speaker 1: Jim Crow South, Plenty of northern and western towns and

43
00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:13,440
Speaker 1: cities had sundown laws stating that no black person should

44
00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:17,160
Speaker 1: be found within the city limits after nightfall. Conducting interviews

45
00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:19,960
Speaker 1: for a forthcoming documentary on The Green Book, Ramsey spoke

46
00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:21,720
Speaker 1: to a woman who, as a little girl on a

47
00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:24,280
Speaker 1: family road trip through Florida in the early nineteen fifties,

48
00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:28,000
Speaker 1: suddenly became ill and needed a place to rest. Ramsey

49
00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:30,480
Speaker 1: said her father went to three or four different hotels

50
00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:33,200
Speaker 1: and motels and they turned him away. He said, my

51
00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:35,120
Speaker 1: daughter is really ill and needs a bed to rest

52
00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:37,679
Speaker 1: peacefully for a while, and they all said no. She

53
00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:39,480
Speaker 1: remembers it was the first time she had ever seen

54
00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:42,600
Speaker 1: in her father cry. The Green Book was created to

55
00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:45,079
Speaker 1: ensure that other black families didn't have to endure such

56
00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:47,960
Speaker 1: dehumanizing treatment in an age when many white business owners

57
00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:52,160
Speaker 1: felt it was perfectly acceptable to refuse black patrons. Flipping

58
00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:54,880
Speaker 1: through the nineteen forty edition, there are paid advertisements from

59
00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:57,680
Speaker 1: black owned businesses, in addition to detailed listings for every

60
00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:01,160
Speaker 1: major city in each state. In some locals, options were limited.

61
00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:04,720
Speaker 1: South Dakota, for example, only had two listings, a service

62
00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:08,440
Speaker 1: station and the private tourist home of Mrs J. Moxley.

63
00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:10,720
Speaker 1: Included in the forty eight page booklet is a letter

64
00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:13,600
Speaker 1: from a grateful reader named William Smith from Hackensack, New Jersey,

65
00:03:13,800 --> 00:03:16,480
Speaker 1: who wrote, we earnestly believe the Green Book will mean

66
00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:18,680
Speaker 1: as much, if not more, to us, as the Triple

67
00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:22,440
Speaker 1: A means to the white race. Ramsay explains that roadside

68
00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:26,200
Speaker 1: assistance organizations like Triple A often didn't accept black members,

69
00:03:26,280 --> 00:03:29,040
Speaker 1: and that savvy black travelers would bring along extra fan

70
00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:32,720
Speaker 1: belts and spark plugs for long journeys. Edition of the

71
00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:35,520
Speaker 1: Green Book starts with a section on automotive preparedness and

72
00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:39,280
Speaker 1: how to keep a car up and running. Victor Green's

73
00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:42,200
Speaker 1: publication opened up America's roads and highways to millions of

74
00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:45,520
Speaker 1: black families. He died in nineteen sixty four, years shy

75
00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:47,640
Speaker 1: of the passing of the Civil Rights Act, a moment

76
00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:50,800
Speaker 1: he had long awaited, Green wrote in the introduction to

77
00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:53,920
Speaker 1: the edition, there will be a day sometime in the

78
00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:56,280
Speaker 1: near future when this guide will not have to be published.

79
00:03:56,760 --> 00:03:58,600
Speaker 1: That is when we as a race will have equal

80
00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:01,640
Speaker 1: opportunities and privileges in the United States. It will be

81
00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:04,120
Speaker 1: a great day for us to suspend this publication, for

82
00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:06,640
Speaker 1: then we can go wherever we please and without embarrassment.

83
00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:09,640
Speaker 1: But until that time comes, she'll continue to publish this

84
00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:17,919
Speaker 1: information for your convenience each year. Today's episode was written

85
00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:20,400
Speaker 1: by Dave Rouse and published by Tyler Clang. For more

86
00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:22,680
Speaker 1: on this and lots of other topics, visit our home planet,

87
00:04:22,760 --> 00:04:35,320
Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com.