Asheville showcasing ‘Green Book’ exhibit

Black life in NC during the Jim Crow era on display

ASHEVILLE – In the early 1920s, a home at 360 College St. was bought by a women-led community organization known as the Employment Club. The group would go on to create the Phyllis Wheatley branch of the YWCA — one of the most prominent Black-led organizations in Western North Carolina until the integration of the YWCA in the mid-1960s.

The YWCA was one of the 13 locations in Asheville featured in the “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” published from 1936 to 1966, and is prominently highlighted in a touring exhibit visiting Asheville called “Navigating Jim Crow: The Green Book and Oasis Spaces in North Carolina.”

The exhibit was designed and researched by the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission to highlight the “Green Book,” which was used as “both a travel guide and a tool of resistance to confront the realities of racial discrimination in the United States and beyond,” according to a city of Asheville news statement.

“It was one of my favorite places because they used to have the teen dances and they had a teen coordinator there at the YWCA who was very good,” said Viola Spells, an Asheville artist who spoke with North Carolina African American Heritage Commission about the YWCA for the project’s oral history segment.

The exhibit highlights the different locations across North Carolina that acted as safe havens for Black travelers and residents during Jim Crow and provides an online oral history of the “Green Book.” The exhibit’s stop in Asheville was organized by city staff at Asheville Parks and Recreation and has visited three community centers over the month of November.

From hotels and restaurants to barber shops and beauty salons, the “Green Book” provided a clear and distinct guide to locations that were safe