Roland Penttila, a reader of this website based in Albuquerque, emailed this 1955 newspaper clipping a few days ago:
Penttila wrote:
While many white families have fond memories of their auto adventures along Route 66 during its heyday, too little is remembered of how difficult it was for African Americans to travel U.S. highways including Route 66. There was shame and danger around each curve and the trip was often unpleasant as they faced discrimination and prejudice along the way.
The attachment below is from (a now defunct) Albuquerque Tribune of August 16, 1955 (63 years ago) detailing the sad truth of Negro travels along Route 66. Thankfully, we’ve come a long way in those 63 years and I’m glad to have seen this change during my lifetime. It is as much a part of Route 66’s history as all the colorful neon signs and giant lumberjacks.
I have nothing more to add to Penttila’s comments.
The article got me wondering, however, how widespread Route 66 motels’ so-called ban of African-American motorists was along New Mexico from the Texas border to Albuquerque.
A few years ago, the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program compiled data from the Negro Motorist Green Book, published annually from 1936 to 1966. The Green Books, as they were called, were a guide of black-friendly motels, restaurants, repair shops and other businesses during the Jim Crow era.
As it turns out, black motorists had few options along the 215 miles of Route 66 from the border town of Glenrio to Albuquerque.
In 1955, Tucumcari had three boarding houses on its north side listed in the Green Book, almost two miles from U.S. 66.
The Amigo Motel and Cafe along 66 in town wasn’t listed in the Green Book until the 1956 edition. Two other Tucumcari Route 66 motels, La Plaza Court and the Cactus Motel, were listed just one time — 1952 and 1953, respectively.
Elsewhere, the Will Rogers Court in Santa Rosa wasn’t listed in the Green Book until 1957. Santa Fe’s El Rey Court, which U.S. 66 bypassed to the south almost 20 years before, also wasn’t listed until 1957.
Based on the information available, African-American motorists on Route 66 in 1955 didn’t have overnight lodging options from the Texas border to Albuquerque unless they aware of or lucky enough to snag a room at one of the Tucumcari boarding houses.
And it wasn’t just from the Texas-New Mexico border where African-Americans found few options. There were no listed facilities for them west of Amarillo to the state line. That meant almost 300 miles on a crowded, narrow highway if no rooms were available in Tucumcari.
(Image of an “Office – No Vacancy” neon sign by Christopher Ludtke via Flickr)
Once again an item on the Route 66 website has led me to new information.
1955 – the year of this road traffic accident in New Mexico – was also that of a New Mexico Civil Rights Act and, much better known, the year when Rosa Parks on 1 Dec 1955 refused to give up her ‘coloured’ bus seat to a ‘white’ person because all the ‘whites’ seats were occupied.
On 24 Jul 1955, the New York Times had blazed, “NEW MEXICO FREE OF RACE FRICTION; Desegregation Laws Cause Little Stir — Negroes Find No Bans in Public.” The news item started, “ALBUQUERQUE, July 23 – Racial friction, which is rarely extreme in New Mexico, is creating little stir as desegregation and anti-discrimination laws become increasingly effective here.”
So how did the “Negroes Find No Bans in Public” line compare with the NAACP saying, “Albuquerque motels and others in New Mexico along U.S. 66 are not opened to Negroes”? Perhaps the fine of “not less than ten dollars ($10.00) nor more than fifty dollars ($50.00) for each violation” for “wilfully violat[ing] any of the provisions relating to civil rights” in the brand new law was not much of a deterrent to motel owners. Old habits die hard?
And how many Negroes would have stood their legal ground?
Does this not illustrate the divisive nature of a federal constitution, whereby what may generously be called cultural differences between states have direct or indirect effects on anyone living in or passing through individual states?
Which was the cart and which the horse here? What proportion of Route 66 travellers in 1955 were Negroes? Was all the accommodation mentioned in the Negro Motorist Green Book run by Negroes? Or were there some ‘whites’ willing to provide rooms for ‘non-whites’? Knowing beforehand about the lack of suitable accommodation, what driving arrangements would anyone make on a long journey? What was the average speed on Route 66 in the 1950s? Did having six people in the car have a bearing on the accident? How many of the six were drivers, able to share the driving?
All we know for sure is that there was a collision between a lorry and a car at an isolated crossroads, and that all those in the car were killed and were Negroes. Even today Clines Corners is little more than a desert intersection. The newspaper report does not mention any witnesses to the accident, the only survivor being the lorry driver, presumably a ‘white’ man. Was he (partly) to blame? And the police presumed “speed and fatigue” by the car’s driver were to blame. If the car was going too fast for the road conditions, was the lack of suitable accommodation relevant or not? Did the car’s driver know the road?
The lack of suitable accommodation was a possible factor, but not necessarily the cause, or the prime one.
What can be said is that the racial discrimination over accommodation provision was wrong.
I think you may have gotten the words “white” and “colored” mixed up here when you wrote “Rosa Parks on 1 Dec 1955 refused to give up her ‘coloured’ bus seat to a ‘white’ person because all the ‘whites’ seats were occupied.” I think Rosa refused to give up a ‘white’ seat. Regardless, Rosa was a fabulous and brave human being.
Pvkalso – from Wikipedia: “On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks rejected bus driver James F. Blake’s order to relinquish her seat in the “colored section” to a white passenger, after the whites-only section was filled.” Are you saying Wikipedia is wrong?