Victor H. Green
Victor Hugo Green (November 9, 1892 - aft. 1964? ) was a Harlem, New York, postal employee and civic leader. He was the creator of an African-American travel guide known as The Green Book. It was first published as The Negro Motorist Green Book and later as The Negro Travelers' Green Book. The books were published from 1936 to 1964.[1] He reviewed hotels and restaurants that did business with African Americans during the time of Jim Crow laws and racial segregation in the United States. He printed 15,000 copies each year.
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Biography [edit]
He was born on November 9, 1892, in New York City.[2] Starting in 1913 he started work as a postal carrier in Harlem, New York.[2][3] In the 1930s, he began to collect information on stores in the New York area that accepted black travelers, and published his first guide in 1936. It was so popular that he immediately began to expand its coverage the next year to other US destinations. After retiring from the Postal Service, Green continued to work on updating issues of The Green Book, and building up the related travel business he had established in 1947.
Green married Alma Duke of Richmond, Virginia.[4] She came to New York as part of the Great Migration from the South to northern cities in the early twentieth century.
Publishing and travel career [edit]
As African Americans took part in the American car culture, they were restricted by racial segregation in the United States. State laws in the South required separate facilities for African Americans. In 1936 Green collected information on hotels, restaurants and gas stations that would do business with African Americans for his first edition of The Negro Motorist Green Book. Since some towns did not have hotels or motels that would accept African American guests, he listed "tourist homes" where owners would rent room to travelers.[3][5] It featured information restricted to the New York metropolitan area.[3] In his introduction, Green wrote:
"There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal rights and privileges in the United States."[3]
He created a publishing office in Harlem. In 1947 he established a Vacation Reservation Service to book reservations at black-owned establishments. By 1949 the guide included destinations in Bermuda, Mexico and Canada and listed food, lodging, and gas stations.[6] In 1952 Green changed the name to The Negro Travelers' Green Book. His travel bureau office was located at 200 W. 135th Street in Harlem, New York.[4]
He printed 15,000 copies each year of The Green Book, marketing them to white as well as black-owned businesses to demonstrate "the growing affluence of African Americans."[3] At the time, Esso franchised gas stations to African Americans, when some other companies did not, and these became popular sales points for the book.[3]
After passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Green ended publication.
He died sometime after 1964.
In popular culture [edit]
- Calvin Alexander Ramsey, Ruth and the Green Book (2010), children's book;
- Calvin Alexander Ramsey, The Green Book, a play that had a staged reading on September 15, 2010, at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC;[7][8] and,
- The Dresser Trunk Project (2007), traveling exhibit about black travel during segregation, organized by William Daryl Williams, director of School of Architecture and Interior Design, University of Cincinnati.
References [edit]
- ^ Emma Lacey-Bordeaux and Wayne Drash (February 25, 2011). "Travel guide helped African-Americans navigate tricky times". CNN. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
- ^ a b "Victor H. Green in the World War II draft registration". Selective Service. 1942.
- ^ a b c d e f McGee, Celia (August 22, 2010). "The Open Road Wasn’t Quite Open to All". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-08-23. "A Harlem postal employee and civic leader named Victor H. Green conceived the guide in response to one too many accounts of humiliation or violence where discrimination continued to hold strong."
- ^ a b Novera C. Dashiell, "Many Happy Returns", The Negro Motorist Green Book of 1956, Teaching US History, p. 6, accessed 25 Aug 2010
- ^ Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson (2005). Hidden kitchens: stories, recipes, and more from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters. Rodale Press. ISBN 1-59486-313-X. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
- ^ Justin Hyde. "The Guide That Helped Black Motorists Drive Around Jim Crow". Retrieved 2011-01-17.
- ^ Lincoln Theatre website
- ^ Washington Post article referring to reading of play
Further reading [edit]
- Complete scan of Green Book by the The Henry Ford museum (92MB pdf).
- Cotten Seiler, Republic of Drivers: A Cultural History of Automobility in America, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2008, ISBN 0-226-74564-3
- "'Green Book' Helped African-Americans Travel Safely", Talk of the Nation, NPR, September 15, 2010
- Lacey-Bordeaux, Emma and Wayne Drash. "Travel guide helped African-Americans navigate tricky times." CNN. February 25, 2011.
