The Negro Motorist Green Book
Episode 11 | 58sVideo has Closed Captions
Explore The Green Book, a traveler’s guide for the black community in the Jim Crow Era.
Join Novella Ford of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture as she looks at two Green Books, which served as travel guides for the Black community during the Jim Crow Era. These copies are now a part of the NYPL’s Polonsky Exhibition.
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NYPL Treasures is a local public television program presented by WLIW PBS
The Negro Motorist Green Book
Episode 11 | 58sVideo has Closed Captions
Join Novella Ford of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture as she looks at two Green Books, which served as travel guides for the Black community during the Jim Crow Era. These copies are now a part of the NYPL’s Polonsky Exhibition.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipNovella: These are two copies of "The Negro Motorist Green Book."
"Green Books," which were started in 1936, provided Black motorists greater freedom to move about the United States during the Jim Crow era.
New Jersey Postal Service employee Victor Green and his wife Alma edited a guidebook listing commercial establishments as hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and beauty salons that African Americans could safely patronize while traveling during the Jim Crow era.
They were published between 1936 and 1966 with a pause during World War II, roughly 15,000 copies annually, however, I have also seen it noted that 1961, there was up to 2 million in circulation.
The cultural significance of Green's guide in delineating racial segregation cannot be overestimated.
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NYPL Treasures is a local public television program presented by WLIW PBS