A guide to travel in the Jim Crow era

Slate’s history blog, The Vault*, which recently brought our attention to a children’s book about slavery and vinegar valentines, now focuses on the Negro Motorist Green Book, which was published from 1936-1964. The book, which is available in PDF form here, opens with the following statement:

With the introduction of this travel guide in 1936, it has been our idea to give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassments and to make his trips more enjoyable.

This would work well to provide additional context for class discussion of something like Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns, which focuses on African Americans during the great migration from the South to the North in the early-to-mid 20th century.

*My use of all of these posts might make up for the time that Slate was stealing my ideas.