‘Driving While Black’ looks beyond ‘Green Book’
Author connects dots of racism that link the past and present
Yes, Black History Month ended weeks ago. But that doesn’t mean you still can’t take the time to read about how messed up things have been for African Americans ever since they set foot (rather forcibly) on this land.
The new book “Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights” — written by Gretchen Sorin, professor and director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program of the State University of
New York — gives you a heaping handful of the trials black people went through in America during the 20th century, particularly when they were traveling.
For most of the last millennium, black people getting from one place to another was often a dangerous journey. Even getting on a bus was a risky proposition, as Sorin brings up the time in the 1940s when a white bus driver shoved a black man named Steve Edwards and his wife off his bus. When Edwards asked for a refund of his fare, the bus driver shot Edwards twice. He wasn’t the only one on the bus feeling trigger-happy: “As he lay on the ground,” Sorin writes, “a white passenger drew a gun and shot him again.”
The automobile wasn’t just a new way to travel. It was, for African Americans, both a shield and a ticket out of town. The car finally gave black people the freedom to go anywhere they pleased. But even on vacation or business trips, black Americans were always reminded just how white America saw them. From the Jim Crow, get-outta-town-by-sundown signs to the landmarks and establishments with offensive names (remember the Coon Chicken Inn?) to the lynchings they’d stumble upon, black people were always aware they were expendable while on the open road.
Sorin inserts her personal, racial experiences at the beginning of each chapter. And she never lets up, while taking readers back to a time when black people had cars to find their way out of trouble, they still were always in danger. She finds quotes from notable, African-American icons, from activist/scholar W.E.B. DuBois to gospel legend Mahalia Jackson, each one admitting they had to stay alert when they were driving through white man’s land.
She tells of for-us-by-us entities whose sole mission was to make black travelers’ experience a pleasant one. The main one was “The Negro Motorist Green Book.” Created by Victor Green, it led travelers down the right path by listing all the black businesses, black restaurants and black hotels they could visit. (When Green stepped down as publisher and was replaced by his wife, Alma, the guide became an all-female operation, with Alma becoming one of the first, trailblazing female publishers in the game.) This book wasn’t the only one that was serving as printed networks for the traveling black man: One Works Progress Association (WPA) guide featured pieces from future esteemed writers Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurtston.
Sorin weaves these stories together in the book and describes how they led to civil rights activists like Martin Luther King Jr. hanging out at blackowned businesses like the Gaston Motel in Birmingham, Ala., operated by a conservative businessman, A.G. Gaston. He always had a room squared away for activists and leaders who were trying to make change happen.
The publication of “Driving” adds additional history to the prop that was predominantly used in the feature film “Green Book,” a questionable best picture Academy Award winner.
The “Green Book” wasn’t just a useful tool for African Americans who were out and about on the road, it was a handbook for how to stay alive in a largely pale-skinned world. In a sly way, Sorin is turning black readers’ attention to an era when black folk relied on each other for safety — something that feels lacking in our contemporary, African-American culture.
American society has progressed to a point where black people don’t have to worry about dying every time they want to leave the house and get something to eat. But “Driving While
Black” chronicles the horrible history African Americans of yesteryear experienced — and connects it to fears African Americans of today still face.
Sorin suggests no fly, fancy ride is alone capable of speeding away from the racism that still lives and breathes in this country.