Pioneers in Black Travel to be Honored by Automotive Industry

Imagine a life without GPS, a reliant technological feature of the modern era for mapping out our destinations for the road. It helps a lot of people get from point A to point B in travel. Now imagine a time in the mid 1900’s. For Black Americans living in areas that enforced racial segregation laws, … Continued

Pioneers in Black Travel to be Honored by Automotive Industry

Imagine a life without GPS, a reliant technological feature of the modern era for mapping out our destinations for the road. It helps a lot of people get from point A to point B in travel.

Now imagine a time in the mid 1900’s. For Black Americans living in areas that enforced racial segregation laws, Black people would likely encounter unwelcoming and unsafe experiences by their white counterparts. No time for a stop at the wrong hotel or fuel station while on a road trip.

Victor Green sought to change that notion by revolutionizing the way Black people traveled. Green was born in New York on November 9, 1892. His family eventually moved to New Jersey when he was young and its where he spent his years as a postal letter carrier.

It was the type of job at that offered him job security, yet low wages. New Jersey was his life before moving back to New York. He married Alma Green in 1918 before his military deployment to France to fight during World War I.

He returned home and continued his service as a letter carrier while also picking up a gig as a musician manager for Robert Duke.

It was during these times he often wondered about the safety of Black musicians and their team when they would travel and make stops for performances out of town, especially hotel accommodations for a musician’s band or common everyday folk.

The era of Jim Crow laws made it challenging for African Americans to fuel up, buy food, use public restrooms, etc.

Green was determined to remove this unjust barrier. In 1936, he published The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, which previously covered his hometown of New York City. By the next year and by popular demand, his publications expanded and went national.

What Green compiled an essential guidebook for Black people on safe places to stay, where to eat, and gas stations to patronize. Again, an era of no GPS or modern phones, and internet to pinpoint all of these pitstops into a book. Green used the help of his connections as a postal carrier to develop a listing of where to visit.

Green along with his wife, Alma, had become a elegant business duo while doing such work. They partnered with Esso, a subsidiary of Standard Oil which purchased ads and sold copies. The Greens began to sale 15,000 copies annually.

“The Green Book was a profoundly innovative and groundbreaking publication,” said Candacy Taylor, author of Overground RailRoad – The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America. “Their marketing genius, their ability to take something that was obviously really needed in the country, but they had a branding strategy that was really strong.”

There were a dozen of other black travel guides but none of them matched the business savvy and branding approach as The Green Book.

“Victor Green had a seventh-grade education, but he worked with the postal union. Black postal workers would go to the Black neighborhoods. He utilized that as a marketing strategy.”

That strategy was proven to work as postal carriers would engage and welcome Black business owners to subscribe to The Green Book.

It grew so fast and surpassed other Black travel guides It was in publication for over three decades and its content evolved on where to go for entertainment to safe Black spaces and places to see a barber, hit a nightclub or beauty salon.

“If you’re a Black man in business in the 1800’s or 1940’s, you have no SBA, you have no bank loan, you don’t have anything,” said William F. Pickard, PhD, Chairman of Global Automotive Alliance. Pickard is also developing a book which profiles Black business leaders from 1850-1950. “But the numbers made money and your hustle. He predicted in 1959 would be no longer relevant once the civil rights laws are passed.”

“If you went to the Urban League in New York or Detroit or Cleveland, you could pick up a book, or a church, or gas station. From businesses selling the books to the businesses inside the book, it would blow your mind.”

Green work to publish his book while being a letter carrier. He retired from the postal service at the age of 60. He died on October 16, 1960 in New York. He was 67 years-old. His wife Alma continued the publication of The Green Book until 1966.

The introduction of the book opened with the following message:

“There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges in the United States. It will be a great day for us to suspend this publication for then we can go wherever we please, and without embarrassment.”

This trailblazing piece of history of Victor and Alma Green will soon be honored this summer during The 2022 Automotive Hall of Fame’s Induction & Awards Ceremony on July 21, 2022, in Detroit.

The event will recognize a diverse collection of mobility pioneers from around the globe. This group includes trailblazers and icons who defied personal, professional, and cultural odds to bring their immeasurable contributions to the automotive industry.

“This year’s class of inductees continues to recognize the diversity of contributions to this industry,” said

Sarah Cook, president of the Automotive Hall of Fame. “From manufacturing to racing, road travel to the

rarest of luxury performance vehicles, this group tells some of the most interesting and important

stories of the industry, and we couldn’t be more pleased to recognize their achievements and welcome

them into the Hall of Fame.”

The 2022 Automotive Hall of Fame Inductees widely considered the single greatest honor an individual can receive in the automotive industry, induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame is reserved for noteworthy individuals whose efforts have helped shape the automotive and mobility market.

The Automotive Hall of Fame is located in Dearborn, Michigan and is open to the public.