Green Book Listings, West Virginia (1938 - 1964)
Dublin Core
Title
Green Book Listings, West Virginia (1938 - 1964)
Subject
African Americans -- Travel -- Periodicals
Automobile travel -- Guidebooks
African Americans -- Recreation -- Periodicals
Restaurants -- United States -- Directories
United States -- Description and travel -- Periodicals
United States -- Guidebooks -- Periodicals
Hotels -- United States -- Directories
Bars (Drinking establishments) -- United States -- Directories
Automobile travel -- Guidebooks
African Americans -- Recreation -- Periodicals
Restaurants -- United States -- Directories
United States -- Description and travel -- Periodicals
United States -- Guidebooks -- Periodicals
Hotels -- United States -- Directories
Bars (Drinking establishments) -- United States -- Directories
Description
Compiled clippings of the Green Book locations in West Virginia from 1938 - 1964)
The Green Book was an annual guidebook for African-American roadtrippers founded and published by New York City mailman Victor Hugo Green from 1936 to 1967. From a New York-focused first edition published in 1936, Green expanded the work to cover much of North America. The Green Book became "the bible of black travel" during the era of Jim Crow laws, when open and often legally prescribed discrimination against African Americans and other non-whites was widespread. Green wrote this guide to identify services and places relatively friendly to African-Americans so they could find lodgings, businesses, and gas stations that would serve them along the road. It was little known outside the African-American community. Shortly after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed the types of racial discrimination that made the Green Book necessary, publication ceased and it fell into obscurity.
The Green Book was an annual guidebook for African-American roadtrippers founded and published by New York City mailman Victor Hugo Green from 1936 to 1967. From a New York-focused first edition published in 1936, Green expanded the work to cover much of North America. The Green Book became "the bible of black travel" during the era of Jim Crow laws, when open and often legally prescribed discrimination against African Americans and other non-whites was widespread. Green wrote this guide to identify services and places relatively friendly to African-Americans so they could find lodgings, businesses, and gas stations that would serve them along the road. It was little known outside the African-American community. Shortly after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed the types of racial discrimination that made the Green Book necessary, publication ceased and it fell into obscurity.
Creator
Black in Appalachia
Source
- New York Public Library Digital Collections. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Publisher
Victor H. Green & Co. (Publisher : New York, N.Y.) (Publisher)
Date
1938 - 1964
Rights
Items can be used for private reflection and research, and not for commercial purposes.
Files
Citation
Black in Appalachia, “Green Book Listings, West Virginia (1938 - 1964),” Black in Appalachia: Community History Digital Archive, accessed March 23, 2025, https://blackinappalachia.omeka.net/items/show/2279.