Back in the really bad old days African-American citizens had a hard time finding a place to stay and/or eat as they traveled across our country. That is why in 1936 New York travel agent Victor Green created The Negro Motorist Green Book. The book was available at Esso gas stations and listed places and businesses where African-Americans were welcome. In addition to hotels, restaurants, barber shops, beauty salons, nightclubs, bars, and gas stations, the book listed tourist homes, private residences where travelers were welcomed to stay the night. As I perused the 1949 edition of the book I was surprised to find two listings under tourist homes for a family named Anderson.
I know some Andersons and, although the addresses are wrong, I wonder if Mrs. G or R. B. were related to them. I'll have to ask the next time I see them.
The book was last published in 1964, the year the Civil Rights Act was passed, becoming living proof that the times, they were a changing.
-A complete copy of the 1949 edition of the book can be found here.
-An article about the Green Book in the New York Times can be found here.
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