Black citizens coming together to eat, dance, talk, shop and relax. The GREEN BOOK pointed the way to a Black experience not on the mainstream horizon, but it was there—real, alive, and thriving.
– RON BUFORD, born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, during Jim Crow
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African Americans had many strategies in case of a dangerous encounter. For a traveling family, a chauffeur’s hat could be a useful prop in an interaction with a racist police officer. If pulled over, Black men would invent stories claiming the car they drove was, in fact, their boss’s. They were just a chauffeur, a servant. The woman and children? Just taking the boss’s “help” home after a long day.
Man by a car, ca. 1937. [Shades of L.A. Photo Collection]/Los Angeles Public Library.
Green Book sites owned by Black women were dominant throughout the pages of the guide. From beauty shops to funeral homes, woman-run businesses provided comfort, service, and personality to travelers across the country. Additionally, in the latter years of the Green Book’s publication, the guide’s editing staff was almost entirely made up of women.
Credit: Green Book, 1962. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library.
Of the seventeen beauty schools listed in the Green Book, the two most popular were Madam C. J. Walker’s College of Beauty Culture and Annie M. Turnbo Malone’s Poro Colleges.
Walker and Malone revolutionized the Black hair care industry by creating unique products to condition, grow, and straighten hair, which resulted in unprecedented wealth for both entrepreneurs. They trained thousands of women throughout the nation to use their hairstyling techniques, sell their products door-to-door, and run their own businesses.
Green’s business approach was crafted in the footsteps of Black entrepreneur innovator Madam C.J. Walker, the first American women to become a self-made millionaire. From door-to-door sales to grassroots marketing tactics, Green was a part of a legacy of Black entrepreneurial success.
Credit: The Traveler's Green Book, 1960. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library.
Without Black women business owners, the Green Book would not have had as many successful listings as it did; and, without the Green Book, these businesses would not have been as successful as they became. Credit: Green Book, 1962. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library.
Tourist homes became popular after the Depression. Tourist homes were largely run by women. A precursor to today’s popular home rental sites, these were private residences that opened their doors when suitable accommodations for Black travelers could not be found elsewhere.
Renting out rooms was a way for families of all races to earn extra income. More than 1,400 tourist homes were listed in the Green Book during its publication.
Credit: Green Book, 1962. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library.
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Harlem Women Protesting In the early 1930s, Black Americans banded together to create the “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” campaign. The campaign galvanized Black communities to boycott businesses that wouldn’t hire them. The Negro Motorist Green Book was born in the midst of the 1935 race riot in Harlem and a decade after the “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” campaign. [If you can't shop there, don't work there], 1940. [Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Contributor]/[ArchivePhotos] via Getty Images.
Small's Paradise
Founded in 1925, at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Smalls Paradise was listed in the Green Book between 1938 and 1967. Edwin Alexander Smalls ran it for more than thirty years, and in the 1920s it was one of the few integrated nightclubs owned by a Black man.
In the early 1940s, Victor Green moved his operation out of his home and into an office above Smalls Paradise.
Credit: Exterior of Smalls Paradise, Harlem, 1955. Photograph by Austin Hansen used by permission of the Estate of Austin Hansen, and may not be copied. Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library.
The Savoy One of the most famous nightclubs in Harlem was another Green Book site, The Savoy. Opened in 1926, The Savoy was the size of an entire city block, and was one of the first integrated clubs in Harlem. Two bandstands hosted the best performers at the height of their careers, including Benny Goodman, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker. [Souvenir Card for Savoy], 1926-1958. Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Reseach in Black Culture, The New York Public Library.
Plays of Negro Life
During the Harlem Renaissance, there was an explosion of Black intellectualism and artistic expression, producing greats like Zora Neale Hurston, W.E.B Du Bois, Alain Locke, Augusta Savage, and Langston Hughes.
The modernist cover created by the artist Aaron Douglas gives creative cadence to this movement of African American affirmation.
Credit: Plays of Negro Life: A Source-Book of Native American Drama, 1927. Ed. Alain LeRoy Locke and Thomas Montgomery Gregory. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, © Aaron Douglas Foundation/Licensed by Visual Artists & Galleries Association, Inc. (VAGA), New York, NY.
The New Negro …the present generation will have added the motives of self-expression and spiritual development to the old and still unfinished task of making material headway and progress. No one who … views the new scene with it still abundant promise can be entirely without hope. …if in our lifetime the Negro should not be able to celebrate his full American democracy…he can at least…celebrate the attainment … of a spiritual Coming of Age. The New Negro: An Interpretation, 1925. Ed. Alain LeRoy Locke. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture © 1925 by Albert and Charles Boni, Inc.
Palm Café Palm Café Inc. souvenir photo card, 1959 Credit: [Souvenir Card for Palm Cafe]. Collection of Arthur L. Field.
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Esso Standard Oil was a leader in offering opportunity to Black Americans during Jim Crow, opening doors to Black intellectual expertise, and those with higher education and training.
In 1934, Esso Standard Oil, now ExxonMobil, hired James A. Jackson as a special representative to research the role and impact of the Black consumer in America.
THIS WAS REVOLUTIONARY:
JACKSON WAS AFRICAN AMERICAN.
At the time, Esso was one of the largest companies in the world, and Victor Green saw an opportunity. Through a savvy business strategy, Green and Jackson devised a plan to distribute the guide in Esso stations across the country.
