The Negro Motorist Green Book
Traveling though the United States as a Black person was very difficult in the Jim Crow Era. Travelers of color came to expect the potentials for embarrassment by being turned away from businesses and public restrooms. If a wrong decision was made, African-Americans dealt with the possibility of arbitrary arrest, abuse, and lynchings. To avoid such dangers, many often traveled with The Negro Motorist Green Book.
The Negro Motorist Green Book was created by African-American postal worker, Victor Hugo Green. It included listings of restaurants, gas stations, lodgings, and other businesses throughout the United States that would serve Black people. The best way to get the Green Book was to purchase it at Esso gas stations: one of the few gas chains in America that would serve Black customers.
A sign located in Rome City, Georgia directing Black travelers to the all Black waiting room.
Even Coca Cola machines had "White Customers Only" printed on them
Unidentified man and two women standing by a car
Photographic print of two men sitting on a car.
Credits to Christa Welty, Metadata and Reference Librarian at the Nicholson Library, for research about the Negro Motorist Green Book and creation of the physical display that inspired this inclusion.