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Loading... Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights| 108 | 1 | 254,553 | 
(4.11) | None | "How the automobile fundamentally changed African American life-the true history beyond the Best Picture-winning movie. The ultimate symbol of independence and possibility, the automobile has shaped this country from the moment the first Model T rolled off Henry Ford's assembly line. Yet cars have always held distinct importance for African Americans, allowing black families to evade the many dangers presented by an entrenched racist society and to enjoy, in some measure, the freedom of the open road. Gretchen Sorin recovers a forgotten history of black motorists, and recounts their creation of a parallel, unseen world of travel guides, black only hotels, and informal communications networks that kept black drivers safe. At the heart of this story is Victor and Alma Green's famous Green Book, begun in 1936, which made possible that most basic American right, the family vacation, and encouraged a new method of resisting oppression. Enlivened by Sorin's personal history, Driving While Black opens an entirely new view onto the African American experience, and shows why travel was so central to the Civil Rights movement"--… (more) |
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Good roads beckon to you and me, daily we grow more motor-wise. The nomad in the poorest and the mightiest of us, sends us behind the wheel, north, south, east, and west, in answer to the call of the road....[T]here is still a small cloud that stands between us and complete motor-travel freedom. On the trail, this cloud rarely troubles us in the mornings, but as the afternoon wears on it casts a shadow of apprehension on our hearts and sours us a little. "Where," it asks us, "will you stay tonight?" - Alfred Edgar Smith, "Through the Windshield," Opportunity, 1933  We obtained the most important book needed for Negroes who traveled anywhere in the United States. It was called the Green Book. The "Green Book" was the bible of every Negro highway traveler in the 1950s and early 1960s. You literally didn't dare leave home without it. -- Earl Hutchinson Sr., A Colored Man's Journey Through 20th Century Segregated America | |
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| Dedication |
For Alvenia Wooten Sullivan (1919-2009) and Clyde Eugene Sullivan (1909-1983) Strivers, Nurturers, Storytellers And for Gary (1954-1992), with whom I shared a childhood | |
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Since the beginning of the twentieth century, no feature of modern life has been more emblematic of, or deeply connected to, American identity and the American dream than the automobile. | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English
None ▾Book descriptions "How the automobile fundamentally changed African American life-the true history beyond the Best Picture-winning movie. The ultimate symbol of independence and possibility, the automobile has shaped this country from the moment the first Model T rolled off Henry Ford's assembly line. Yet cars have always held distinct importance for African Americans, allowing black families to evade the many dangers presented by an entrenched racist society and to enjoy, in some measure, the freedom of the open road. Gretchen Sorin recovers a forgotten history of black motorists, and recounts their creation of a parallel, unseen world of travel guides, black only hotels, and informal communications networks that kept black drivers safe. At the heart of this story is Victor and Alma Green's famous Green Book, begun in 1936, which made possible that most basic American right, the family vacation, and encouraged a new method of resisting oppression. Enlivened by Sorin's personal history, Driving While Black opens an entirely new view onto the African American experience, and shows why travel was so central to the Civil Rights movement"-- ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description |
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The author shows how the automobile was an early symbol of freedom for African-Americans, and how a whole parallel travel industry grew up to cater to their needs and help them to navigate journeys through racist America.
The author weaves her story in with her own personal experiences traveling with her family in the 1950's and 1960's. This is a part of American history that needs to be remembered. (