Exploring the History, Literature, and Culture of the Tar Heel State
I just noticed on eBay a 1946 edition of the rare, important and viscerally affecting “The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide” (1936-1964).
As noted here almost six years ago by Jason Tomberlin, the North Carolina Collection is holding shelf space open for its first copy.
Current bid: $999.99.
Final price: $4,551.99
A revival of attention to “The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide” (1936-1964) roused my curiosity about what places in North Carolina welcomed black travelers under Jim Crow.
It isn’t long, but the list in the 1949 edition includes some evocative names: the Carver, Lincoln and Booker T. Washington hotels; the Friendly City beauty parlor; the Black Beauty Tea Room; the New Progressive tailor shop; the Big Buster tavern and Blue Duck Inn.
Also mentioned is the Alexander Hotel in Charlotte, where such prominent figures as W.E.B. Du Bois and Louis Armstrong stayed before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 required that public accommodations be public.