Driving While Black

Driving While Black

Adult nonfiction
"This is one of the first books to tell the story of the African
American experience with the automobile, and my hope is that it shows
how access to cars completely transformed black life in ways that were
both far reaching and totally unexpected. The automobile expanded the
freedom of movement and the opportunity to travel through the country
for all Americans, but this freedom meant something different--and
often, simply more--to blacks than to whites. Automobiles provided a
means of escape from the Jim
Crow South...Most important, the automobile became a tool in the
battle to end discrimination in public accomodations."
In the 1990's Gretchen Sorin learned about a pamphlet published
in Saratoga Springs, New York during the 1950's and 1960's--her
growing up years. The Green Book fascinated her. After years of
thorough research and interviewing (enough years to allow her son and
daughter to grow up) she shared the fruits of her labor in Driving
While Black, quoted above, a fascinating and comprehensive volume,
nicely illustrated with period photographs.
From their arrival in the United States as slaves, the mobility
of Blacks was very limited. Slaves were kept on their plantations and
were harshly punished for being elsewhere without passes from their
masters. Patrollers roamed the countryside at night, zealously
confronting all Blacks they encountered and sometimes even kidnapping
free ones. Emancipation didn't do nearly enough to allow Blacks to
move freely or safely around the country. All modes of public
transportation were highly segregated. Blacks using them risked
everything from humiliation to physical violence.
When cars became available and affordable they gave Blacks a way
to avoid the perils and humiliations of using racist public
transportation systems. A sturdy, roomy car could protect them and
their children from physical and psychic violence while on interstate
trips like the summer visits to relatives down South many families
made. But they came with their own set of challenges. Across the
nation communities varied in degrees of racism and segregation of
public accomodations. How could Blacks traveling for business or
leisure locate hotels, restaurants, and sometimes hospitals that would
welcome them while avoiding sundown towns and other hostile
territories when even the travel guides put out for motorists ignored
the perils of driving while Black?
"...Thus a new category that specifically designated safe spots
for people of color provided freedom of movement, safety, and
security. These guide books represented both an entrepreneurial
spirit and the mores of the black middle class--a consumer's approach
but also an approach based on the search to a gradual end to
segregation through travel. The creators of these guides all firmly
believed the mantra that Victor Green adopted from Mark Twain: 'Travel
is fatal to prejudice.'"
Victor and Alma Green produced the most well known and respected
of these yearly alternate guides over a run of decades. Victor was
inspired by the guides that helped Jewish travelors find places where
they would be welcomed and able to observe traditional dietary
practices. He combined listings of safe facilities with advice on
topics such as car maintenance to avoid breakdowns in dangerous
places. He dreamed of a day when guides such as his would be no
longer necessary in a truly integrated world.
Driving While Black is a sobering but fascinating account of the
many ways in which cars changed the lives of Blacks. Sorin starts
chapters with her family's relevant experiences, nicely adding a
personal touch to a work of comprehensive scholarship.
On a purrrsonal note, today I went on my quest. I walked from my home
in Veazie to Orono Public Library to pick up books. It's something
like four miles each way. Even though I packed water I discovered the
necessity of buying a cold Mountain Dew Voltage for an energy pick
up. I got exercise and fresh air and saw butterflies. I will sleep
well tonight. Anyway I got some awesome books to read and review and
exercised my agency. I think we can agree I am a hard core book
lover. (Jules).
She went out and came back safe. (Tobago)
A great big shout out to all the librarians keeping people supplied
with books under less than ideal conditions.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway



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