Some Americans afraid to explore
Her mom always smiled — except when the family made its annual summer drive to visit the grandparents in Magnolia, Ark. “The smiles were gone while we were traveling,” said Gloria Gardner, 77.
It was the 1940s, and traveling to her parents’ hometown was not approached lightly after the family moved to Muskegon, Mich., during the Great Migration. Stopping for food or bathroom breaks was mostly out of the question. For black families, preparing for a road trip required a well-tested battle plan in which nothing could be left to chance.
There were meals to cook and pack in ice. Sheets were folded and stacked in the car to use as partitions if they were left with no choice but to take bathroom breaks roadside.
And there was another item that Gardner recalls her parents never forgot to pack: the Negro Motorist Green Book. While her dad drove, her mother leafed through the pages to see whether there were any restaurants, gas stations or restrooms on their route where they wouldn’t be hassled or in danger.
“When it was time to stop, you had to know where to stop,” said Gardner, who now lives in Rockville, Md. “If you stopped at the wrong place, you might not leave.”
As she looked through a copy of her father’s 1940 edition of the guide, she recalled its importance: “Our Green Book was our survival tool.”
The Negro Motorist Green Book was created in 1936 by Victor Hugo Green, a postal worker in the Harlem neighborhood in New York, to direct black travelers to restaurants, gas stations, hotels, pharmacies and other establishments that were known havens. It was updated and republished annually for more than 30 years, with the last edition printed in 1967.
Candacy Taylor, a writer who has catalogued sites in the Green Book that still exist, said Green distributed the guide through postal workers and traveling salesmen. Copies were also sold at Esso gas stations and, starting in the 1940s, through subscriptions.
Jim Crow segregation laws varied by county and state, so black motorists didn’t have the freedom to play anything by ear — food, gas and lodging would probably be off limits
during stretches of their journeys. Black travelers risked more than the humiliation of being turned away; they often encountered harassment or physical danger if they inadvertently stopped in the wrong town.
Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended many discriminatory practices allowed under Jim Crow laws, similar risks and concerns have lingered. Motorists still fear encountering racist police officers or wandering into towns where they’re not welcome. In recent years, travelers of color have been rejected by Airbnb hosts and booted from a Napa Valley wine tour in a case that led to a racial discrimination lawsuit that was settled.
Ray Jones of Aurora, who identifies as African-American, said he exercises caution whenever he rides his motorcycle outside of the metro Denver area. He said “White lives matter” billboards and bumper stickers send a message that he’s not totally welcome. He’s even stopped traveling to North Carolina to visit relatives with his wife, who is white.
“Based on recent events in [Charlottesville] and the climate in America, I will not feel comfortable traveling south of D.C. for a few [years] when we visit the East Coast annually together,” he said.
Evita Robinson, founder of an online community for travelers called Nomadnesstv.com, points to the political climate and a resurfacing of outspoken racism as causes for concern. She said some of her 17,000 members, most of whom are people of color, often feel more comfortable traveling abroad than within their own country.
Social media also gives a sense of what domestic travel looks like through the eyes of a person of color, chronicling stories of discriminatory encounters with hashtags like #AirbnbWhileBlack and #TravelingWhileBlack. These concerns are not exclusive to black people. Last April, a Korean American woman’s tearful account of being rejected by an Airbnb host because of her race went viral.
During the Green Book era, black drivers were acutely aware they could be targets of unwarranted traffic stops that could go wrong. Traffic stops remain an issue. In a multiyear study of more than 60 million traffic stops across 20 states, Stanford University’s Open Policing Project found black drivers are not only more likely to be stopped, but black and Latino motorists are also more likely to be ticketed and have their cars searched for less cause.