Townsend said community members recall a few Green Book sites in Morganton, but they are not part of the exhibit.
The “Negro Motorist Green Book” was created by Victor Hugo Green, a Black postal carrier from New York City, according to a history of the publication available online. Green saw a vital need for the guide due to the rise of the African-American middle class taking place in the early 20th century. As more of them purchased cars, the desire for Black families to travel on vacation or scenic road tours increased. Many of them just wanted to avoid segregation on public transportation.
During that time period, people of color not only suffered refusal of service at many white-owned establishments along travel routes, they also were routinely subject to harassment, unjust arrest and even violence, as the exhibit documents.
“You didn’t want to get somebody throwing something out the car window, and they hit you upside the head with a bottle or brick,” a panel quoting a Black motorist who traveled North Carolina roads in the 1950s and ‘60s reads. “If you reported it to the police, then he would say, ‘Ah, they’re just having a little fun.’ You have to maneuver these things, because you don’t have the same rights as everybody else.”
The online history of the book documents how many African-American families would have to pack their own gasoline, food, camping equipment and buckets to use for toilets when embarking on an extended trip during the first decades of the 20th century, as they expected to be shut out of most amenities freely available to white people.
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