10/24/2022
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.)
Alvin Hall’s Driving the Green Book is a tour-de-force blending exhaustive research, exquisite writing, and emotionally resonant visuals. The book is also a testament to Black resilience during the Jim Crow era, the strategic thinking that helped Black families not only endure but to prevail over tyrannical anti-Black laws, and the ingenuity that held Black communities together from east to west, north to south. This is a must-read.” — Bakari Sellers, New York Times bestselling author of My Vanishing Country
“[A] poignant…journey along America’s open roads, delving into the country’s racial past, detailing the Green Book’s life-saving history and bringing it all together in one remarkable read.” — Smithsonian Magazine round-up of Ten Best Books about Travel of 2023
“Alvin Hall’s thrilling, deeply researched and illuminating exploration of the world of the Green Book – revealing, enraging and inspiring in equal measure – is a journey all Americans must take. Nothing tells us more about the country we have been, the country we remain in so many ways, and the country we should aspire to be.” — Ric Burns, filmmaker
“A historical examination of a sublime act of Black resistance. . . . Driving the Green Book paints a painful picture of one aspect of the oppression Blacks endured during Jim Crow, while also illustrating the power of the human spirit to subvert an unconscionable system and still experience joy.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“This smart, lively, and timely book is a testament to friendship and self-discovery and a reminder that the road to racial progress has been marked by dead ends and wrong turns. And yet there are so many beautiful and brilliant stories in these pages of family joy, courage, defiance, and triumph over the many racist indignities along the North/South highways of Jim Crow America, I couldn’t put the book down. Driving the Green Book is a terrific place to start your own journey to understanding the nation’s recent past and to chart a course for a better future.” — Khalil Gibran Muhammad, former Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
"Illuminating. . . . 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.” — Publishers Weekly
“Driving The Green Book is an extraordinary journey through history exploring Black Americans’ 400 year tradition of providing safety, shelter, survival, and sanctuary for our community in our quest to live the American dream. The book is beautifully written, educational and inspiring.” — Emil Wilbekin, Founder of Native Son
“Revisiting a vital resistance and survival tool for Black Americans….A hard-charging resurrection of Black lives in Jim Crow America.” — Kirkus Reviews
“This book provides a window into an overlooked position that discrimination forced Blacks into. . . . This well-written account will appeal to readers interested in civil rights, Black history, and travel literature.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“Compelling . . . a book that brings history to life, while also reminding us that history is not so far in the past.” — Book Riot
“Required Reading: 10 Black Authors to Get into in January 2023.” — Ebony
“Readers who love to travel will want to tuck this in their carry-on or console. If there’s a bit of quiet activism inside you, “Driving The Green Book” will fuel it.” — Terri Schlichenmeyer, The Bookworm Sez, syndicated column
Honor Award in Nonfiction — Black Caucus of the American Library Association
★ 12/09/2022
Broadcaster and educator Hall (Driving the Green Book podcast) explores the importance of the travel guide that Black motorists used during the Jim Crow era. Published annually between 1936–67 by Alma and Victor Hugo Green, the Green Book provided lists of Black-owned businesses, which offered safe and friendly accommodations to Black people. Using listings provided in that directory, Hall and his podcast producer, Janée Woods Weber, took a 2,000-mile round trip from Detroit to New Orleans exploring what remains of the businesses—often little more than abandoned buildings—and their legacy. Men and women who had used the guide explained all the preparations that went into travel in the age of Jim Crow to ensure their safety, such as leaving in the middle of the night, packing food in foil-lined shoeboxes, and having to use roadside bushes to relieve themselves. They also relayed the vibrancy and quality of many Black-owned establishments, which provided needed food and rest. Based on interviews and primary research, this book provides a window into an overlooked position that discrimination forced Blacks into. VERDICT This well-written account will appeal to readers interested in civil rights, Black history, and travel literature.—Chad E. Statler
2022-11-15
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.