SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – As Route 66 marks its centennial, a travel guide from the Jim Crow era offers a window into the experiences of Black Americans who drove the Mother Road.
The Green Book, compiled by a postal worker, served as a travel resource for Black travelers from the 1930s through the 1960s. It listed hotels, motels, beauty salons, and other businesses open to Black customers during an era of widespread racial segregation. The guide was printed with the slogan “vacation without aggravation.”
A professor’s personal connection
University of New Mexico Professor Marsha Hardeman said the guide was essential for safe travel across the country.
“The whole purpose of the book was to ensure that people could travel knowing what hours were safe to travel, sometimes needing to be out of certain towns by a certain time, but also to be able to plan their travel days so that you could get from one place to another — east coast to west coast or vice versa — safely,” Hardeman said. “That’s my recollection as a kid of some of the things that I saw along Route 66. And I’m sorry, I don’t know why that just made me kind of well up with tears just remembering.”…