Victor Hugo Green

As increasing numbers of the African-American middle class began to buy more cars and travel throughout the country in the 1930s, a dilemma developed: Where would blacks stay once they got to where they were going?

Strict Jim Crow laws and deep-rooted segregation plagued blacks nationwide at the time, especially in the south where laws required separate facilities for blacks and whites. Even in the north, many hotels, restaurants, stores and gas stations refused to serve African-Americans or threatened them with violence and arrest.

And that deeply troubled Victor Hugo Green, a New York City postal worker and travel writer.

"For the Negro traveler, whether on business or pleasure, there was always trouble finding suitable accommodation in hotels and guest houses where he would be welcomed,” Green said.

So, Green began researching businesses in New York that welcomed blacks and compiled the names in a book he initially called The Negro Motorist Green Book, then The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, before he finally settled on The Green Book.

The Green Book

Published in 1936, the book was well-received among black travelers, so popular that it soon increased its boundaries to include black-friendly businesses nationwide, as well as in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda.

For thousands of black travelers, The Green Book was referred to as “The Bible of black travel during Jim Crow.”

From his Harlem office, Green published 15,000 copies of The Green Book each year. Esso (now Exxon) gas stations was a popular location to buy the book, as the company franchised many stations to blacks. In 1947, Green established a Vacation Reservation Service, a travel agency to book reservations at black-owned establishments.

A book similar to The Green Book was also available to Jewish travelers, as they too suffered widespread discrimination.

A native of New Jersey, Green lived most of his life in New York City. He and his wife, Alma, settled in Harlem in the 1930s, which at the time was the center of African-American arts and culture known as the Harlem Renaissance.  

The passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the legal end to racial segregation led to the demise of The Green Book in 1966. In the introduction of the first copy of The Green Book he noted: “There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal rights and privileges in the United States.”

An adaptation of The Green Book was made into a movie and in 2019 won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Green died in 1960 in New York City. His wife continued to publish The Green Book for six more years.