#drivingwhileblack

Today’s #HistoryBooksatmyJob post was inspired by a conversation with a customer about The Negro Motorist Green Book aka the Green Book and another conversation with a coworker who has done three cross country drives in the past.

For those who don’t know what the Green Book was, it was created by African American mailman Victor Hugo Green in 1936. Initially the Green Book highlighted places in New York City where Blacks could safely get a hotel room, shop and dine without being refused service. Later editions of the book expanded to the rest of the United States, Canada, parts of the Caribbean and parts of Mexico.

You would think that the American idea of hopping into your car and going wherever the road led you applied to all. It did not. The book highlighted such perils that African Americans would face while on the road such as “Sundown Towns” and white only establishments, especially in the Jim Crow South. The book did an amazing job in trying to steer blacks to safe business that would gladly have their business. The book ceased publication in 1966. Here is the selection of books for this week:

- Driving While Black by Gretchen Sorin

- Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor @candacytaylor

- Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance by Mia Bay @mia__bay

- Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James W. Loewen @JamesWLoewen

I’m looking forward to cracking into these books soon. Any thoughts? Yea? Nay?

#TheNegroMotoristGreenBook #VictorHugoGreen #DrivingWhileBlack #GretchenSorin #OvergroundRailroad #CandacyTaylor #TravelingBlack #MiaBay #SundownTowns #JamesWLoewen #AfricanAmericanHistory #AfricanAmericanStudies #BlackHistory #BlackStudies #BlackHistoryMatters #BlackLivesMatter #AmericanHistory #USHistory #Books #Libros #Livres #Bookstagram #BooksAtMyJob #History #Historia #Histoire #HistorySisco

(at Barnes & Noble)

Imagine, if you can, traveling in a less-than-stable foreign nation

like Afghanistan or Nigeria, driving down some nondescript road

when, for no particular reason, you are stopped by a pair of men.

They are armed, and they are wearing matching clothes, and they

are not smiling. They ask for your paperwork, and you realize that

your heart is pounding out of your chest. The barrels of their guns

are not pointed directly at you, but their hands are on the grips,

ready to pull the trigger. They order you to exit the vehicle, and

you instinctively ask why. They don’t answer you, and you look

around for witnesses. Does anyone see what is going on here?

Does anyone care? A moment ago, you were on your way to the

airport, and now you are wondering if you are ever going to see

your family again, picturing yourself lying dead on the side of a

dusty road, full of holes. The men poke around your car, mutter

to each other quietly, and then after what seems an eternity, they

allow you to get back into your car and drive away, and as you do,

sweat pouring down your back, you look in the rear-view just in

case they change their minds and decide to follow you; they don’t,

and now, you can finally breathe, but your hands are still shaking.

https://soundcloud.com/tee-wood-884669118/is-it-my-turn

This is an original poem based on a true story of driving while black.

The credits and sound effects for this audio production can be found at