Driving the Green Book A road trip through the living history of Black resistance

Podcaster Hall debuts with an illuminating history of the mid-20th-century guidebook that advised Black motorists where it was safe to sleep, eat, and refuel in cities and towns across the U.S. Created by talent manager Victor Green and his wife, Alma, The Negro Motorist Green Book was published annually from 1936 to 1967. In an era when Black families traveling along the routes of the Great Migration bought large cars roomy enough to sleep in if they could not find welcoming overnight accommodations, the Green Book aimed "to give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassments and to make his trips more enjoyable," according to the introduction to the 1949 edition. Hall's research includes his own journey from Detroit to New Orleans, with side trips to Cincinnati, Ohio; Nashville, Tenn.; and other cities along the way, where he interviewed residents about "living Black in America then--and now." In Louisville, Ky., author Kenneth Clay recalls walking along Walnut Street, the hub of the city's thriving Black neighborhood, before it was decimated by urban renewal projects in the late 1950s. Throughout, Hall pays moving tribute to the ingenuity and resourcefulness of Black Americans who hit the road, despite the dangers. This historical travelogue inspires and educates. Illus. (Jan.)

Revisiting a vital resistance and survival tool for Black Americans. In 2015, broadcaster Hall first learned about The Negro Motorist Green Book, published by Victor and Alma Green from 1936 to 1967. Each year, the Greens offered guidance to Black Americans, many of whom were traveling from the North, where they had migrated, to their families in the South. In a nation rife with bigotry and racial violence, the guide told travelers about restaurants, hotels, medical facilities, and even gas stations that would welcome their business. Although car travel offered some measure of safety for Blacks--they could avoid being threatened, demeaned, or attacked on buses and trains--still, they knew "that simply driving--being behind the wheel of a car--was viewed in many parts of the United States as an affront to social restrictions based on white supremacy." The Green Book, then, was a crucial resource for Black Americans traveling around the country. For Hall, the books served as an invitation into history, and they became the basis for two road trips: in 2016, to research the BBC documentary The Green Book, and in 2019, accompanied by his friend and co-producer Janée Woods Weber, for his own 10-episode podcast. Hall's many interviewees bear witness to confusing interactions, frightening encounters, and their elders' strict admonitions. Often, Blacks would not risk stopping in towns along the way; when they did, parents made sure their children were aware of "the unwritten, often capricious, area-specific restrictions in the southern states and the possibly life-threatening reactions to violating them." Word of mouth spread information about sundown towns, where Blacks could be arrested or killed if they were on the streets after sundown. Sundown towns, Hall discovered, were not mentioned in the Green Book; neither did the words racism or Jim Crow appear. Nonetheless, the Greens' "diplomatic language" conveyed their points clearly, and Hall relates them clearly to current-day readers. A hard-charging resurrection of Black lives in Jim Crow America. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.