The Negro Motorist Green Book, later known as The Negro Travelers' Green Book, was a listing of restaurants, gas stations, hotels, department stores and other businesses that welcomed Black travelers in the Jim Crow era. It was a vital resource for keeping people safe as more people were able to afford cars and travel the country.
As part of an exhibit underway at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, curators are collecting oral histories of people who remember using the guidebook.
"Green Book is very much alive in the lived memories of so many individuals," says Trudy Gaba, curator for social justice at the Freedom Center. "This is just the perfect opportunity to bring in those lived experiences, and hear firsthand from people that have these really intimate connections to the Green Book."
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The Freedom Center is partnering with the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library to record and archive conversations and memories on Saturday, Sept. 21, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Registration is encouraged because of limited space, but walk-ins are welcome.) The recordings will then be available to the public for research and education.
"It's so important that we preserve these histories and these lived experiences so that we can tell these stories in perpetuity," Gaba says. "If we don't keep it present and alive, and we do not keep it centered in our lived memory, we are doomed to repeat so many of the same mistakes that, historically, we have seen those patterns of — racial apartheid and travel for Black Americans and safety on the open road is still an issue today."
Interviewees will sit down with staff from the Freedom Center and the library, who will guide them through a series of questions designed to prompt conversation. The recordings will flow naturally from there for each participant. Interviews will be video recorded and last 30-45 minutes.
