In some of the Jim Crow-era photographs that accompany a new display at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, signs posted in businesses let Black customers know—in no uncertain terms—they were not welcome. In stark contrast, are other photos showing ordinary African Americans on vacation, still able to find dignity and joy while seeing America.
“That’s what the Black community did, they just navigated around it,” says Dr. Noelle Trent, the museum’s director of interpretation, collections and education. “They found: what were the routes, where were the enclaves, where were the places that they could feel safe, where they could go visit friends, family or sometimes just to have fun.”
During the era of legal racial segregation, African American travelers faced constant barriers finding food and lodging. Many relied on a widely-circulated guide called, “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” to navigate an often hostile landscape. The book and the businesses it promoted are the centerpiece of the museum's most recent exhibit highlighting historical aspects of traveling while Black in America.
Trent says travel during segregation was complicated at best and life threatening at worst. Safe passage sometimes meant starting early in the morning to avoid so-called sundown towns, which wouldn’t allow Black people in after dark.
Logistics for those hitting the road often included packing food to avoid stopping or plotting specific courses to gas stations that wouldn't refuse to fill their tanks.
From 1936 to 1967, the Green Book helped ease this burden. Nationally distributed, it listed about 10,000 hotels, restaurants and gas stations where Black customers could avoid harassment, embarrassment or hostility.
The exhibit includes artifacts from some of those now-vanished oases—cash registers, sets of dishes from restaurants and hotel uniforms.
“It’s telling the story of Black ingenuity, black business, black entrepreneurship,” Trent says. “So what you see with these objects are just items that reflect the businesses and how successful a lot of these businesses were.”
One of these safe havens in Memphis was the Lorraine Motel, which now houses the museum. Today, researchers estimate that less than five percent of historic Green Book stopovers are still in operation. “A lot of them were destroyed as part of gentrification, urban development,” Trent says. “Business went under because of lack of access to capital and other policies that penalized Black businesses.”
But afew sites have beenrestored withassistance from community organizations, which Trent says is a reminder of their ongoing resilience.
“I think that they reflect for this current moment that there’s an opportunity for all of us to rethink...what does survivability look like, but [also] what does thriving look like,” she says.
The travelling exhibit, which opens Saturday and is put on by the Smithsonian, will run for three months and is included with the cost of admission to the museum.
Copyright 2020 WKNO
