A friend posted a link on Facebook to a local showing of a documentary on The Green Book. I had never heard of it, so I did some googling.
Here is some of what I learned.
This little book was written as a guidebook for people of color during the era of Jim Crow.
Starting in 1936, Victor Hugo Green, a letter carrier who lived in Manhattan, published the “Negro Motorist Green Book,” listing hotels, restaurants and other businesses where African-Americans would not only be welcome but also safe. The “Green Book” series rather diplomatically described Jim Crow-era experiences with racist business owners as “painful embarrassments suffered which ruined a vacation or business trip.” (from this article)
Some of the “painful embarrassments” happened in sundown towns, and people of color would drive through the night, pack picnic meals and port their gas to avoid being harassed or harmed. Having a booklet with safe places to eat, sleep, and use the bathroom in the area was invaluable.
The Green Book, which was published from 1936 until the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, listed establishments across the U.S. (and eventually North America) that welcomed blacks during a time when segregation and Jim Crow laws often made travel difficult — and sometimes dangerous.
“Carry The Green Book with you. You may need it,” advises the cover of the 1949 edition. And under that, a quote from Mark Twain, which is heartbreaking in this context: “Travel is fatal to prejudice.” (full story here)
The booklet was compiled and written by a letter carrier, named Victor Hugo Green.
One contributor to his books described Mr. Green, who died in 1960, as “tall, well-built, always impeccably groomed, with an easy, affable manner.” He lived in Harlem, near his “Green Book” publishing office, and commuted to a day job delivering mail in Hackensack, N.J. He modeled his listings after Jewish publishers’ guidebooks for avoiding restricted places, where only gentiles could stay, and his Postal Service colleagues across the country helped him research.
“The mailmen would ask around on their routes” to find black and white business owners amenable to being listed in the “Green Book,” Mr. Ramsey said, adding that Mr. Green “had great leadership ability.” (link)
Using fellow mail carriers around the country, he was able to find places that would be safe for the travelers and their families.
In the Green Book’s early days, it wasn’t easy to compile listings from across the country, says playwright, author, and filmmaker Calvin Alexander Ramsey, who has researched the history of the guide. So Ramsey says Green tapped into a nationwide network of African-American letter carriers. These postal workers, familiar with their local communities, were ideally suited to help fill in the gaps from state to state.
As the Green Book caught on, businesses began to get in touch, asking to be listed. Black newspapers signed on as sponsors. The United States Travel Bureau helped spread the word about the guide. Eventually, Green retired from mail delivery to work full-time on the guide and to open a travel agency.
Distribution of the guide remained a challenge, says Ramsey, and Green relied on informal networks like the National Urban League, the NAACP, masonic lodges, and churches around the country. There was also a big corporate sponsor that helped the guide expand its reach: Esso, also known as Standard Oil, and now known as ExxonMobil. The company may have supported the guide out of a sense of fairness and equality. John D. Rockefeller, who founded Standard Oil in 1870, had married into a family of abolitionists and voted for Abraham Lincoln. But there were certainly economic motivators as well. If African-American tourists felt comfortable on the road, they would travel more and buy more gas. (link)