The negro travelers' Green book : the guide to travel and vacations
(Book)

"Facsimile edition of the 1954 guide for traveling in a segregated US" -- front cover

"THE NEGRO TRAVELERS' GREEN BOOK, first published in 1936 under the title 'The Negro motorist Green Book,' was a product of the rising African-American middle class having the finances and vehicle for travel but facing a world where social and legal restrictions barred them from many accommodations. At the time, there were thousands of 'sundown towns,' towns where African-Americans were legally barred from spending the night there at all. The book provided a guide to hotels and restaurants that would accept their business, often ones established specifically for the black customer. Published annually by Victor Hugo Green, a New Yorker who retired from his work as a mailman based on its success and expanded into the travel reservation business, THE GREEN BOOK was for decades a vital handbook, fading out of business only after the civil rights laws of the 1960s brought about the end of legal segregation. It was sold largely through mail order and through service stations -- specifically, through Esso stations, as Esso not only served African-American customers, they were willing to franchise their stations to African-Americans, unlike most petroleum companies of the day. The guide was also offered by AAA and distributed elsewhere with advice from the United States Travel Bureau, a government agency." -- History.

Reprint. Originally published:,New York City : Victor H. Green, 1953.