“The Negro Motorist Green Book” guided Black Americans to thousands of businesses for over thirty years. When the first “Green Book” was published, the American road was a metaphor for freedom: freedom to change your present situation, determine your destiny, and travel. Yet, in 20th-century America, this same road was a dangerous place for Black travelers. The land was divided by segregation — through policy and through custom. For Black people, the prejudice was severe: a systematic effort to deny their basic human rights. In an era of Jim Crow laws and “sundown towns,” communities that explicitly prohibited Black travelers from staying overnight, the “Green Book” offered critical, life-saving information and sanctuary.
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