Illinois Holocaust Museum near Chicago hosts Negro Motorist Green Book exhibition

The Illinois Holocaust Museum is hosting an exhibition about the “Negro Motorist Green
Book” published during America’s Jim Crow era from the 1930s to the 1960s.

The Green Book, published by Victor Hugo Green, was an annual guidebook for African American travelers looking for nondiscriminating gas stations, restaurants, lodging establishments and other accommodations during the segregation era.

The museum, located in the Chicago north suburb of Skokie, is holding the exhibit through April 23, according to a report by WLS in Chicago.

“Not only will they learn about the time period during the Jim Crow era and segregation in the U.S., but what’s the really positive, incredibly rich story being told here is about Black entrepreneurship, resistance and honestly resilience in the face of Jim Crow,” said Arielle Weininger, chief curator at the Illinois Holocaust Museum.

One part of the exhibit lets you take an interactive driving tour during the 40s and 50s along two different routes, one using the Green Book and one without. […]

There’s also a section on Route 66 and the dangers African Americans faced driving it because it went through so many “sundown towns,” where Black citizens were not allowed after the sun set.

More about the museum’s Green Book exhibition can be found here.

The Smithsonian and others have digitized many of the Green Books so researchers or history buffs could peruse them.

Candacy Taylor wrote the definitive history of the Negro Motorist Green Book, titled “Overground Railroad” (Amazon link). Our review is here.

(Image of a Negro Motorist Green Book cover from 1949)

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.