Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance

National Archives Museum
Online

For countless Americans, the open road has long been a place where dangers lurk. In the era of Jim Crow, Black travelers encountered locked doors, hostile police, and potentially violent encounters almost everywhere, in both the South and the North. From 1936 to 1967, millions relied on The Negro Motorist Green Book, the definitive guide to businesses where they could safely rest, eat, or sleep. Author Alvin Hall set out to revisit the world of the Green Book to instruct us all on the real history of the guide that saved many lives. Along the way, Hall gathered memories from some of the last living witnesses for whom the Green Book meant survival.