The Green-Book and surviving segregation

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. (WVVA) - When local laws denied African Americans basic civil rights during the height of the Jim Crow era, a publication titled The Green-Book provided them a road map for safe havens along the way when driving to and from northern states to southern states.

Many things we taken for granted on a road trips today, like refueling, stopping to eat, and even finding lodging for the night could be fraught with danger including the risk of arrest if black motorists pulled into the wrong businesses at the wrong time of day.

These situations lead to the development of a publication of classified listings of businesses blacks could patronize when traveling, paving a safer way for African Americans to freely move around the country, avoiding some of the ugliness and indignity of segregation.

Janice Cooley, President of the Board of Directors of the Greenbrier Historical Society, gives us a quick history lesson about The Green-Book is and how it helped African Americans navigate segregation in its heyday in the United States.

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