Years experience doctor Gretchen Sorin has consulted for more than two and 50 institutions include the smithsonian, the jewish museum, and the new York State Historical association. She is the director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program of the State University of new york, and the author of in the spirit of margins. The living legacy of doctor Martin Luther king junior. And through the eyes of others, African Americans identity in american art. In her new book, driving while black, just out today, professor Gretchen Sorin talks about the indispensable which reshape the africanamerican traveling experience throughout our segregated land and helped drive the nation Civil Rights Movement. Please welcome Gretchen Sorin to the free library of philadelphia. [applause] guest good evenings wonderful to be in this great city of philadelphia i apologize that rick was not able to join us this evening he had a little bit of an emergency and he is in italy. I hope that you will enjoy preview of our film that he sent along. So im in a talk, im sure many of you seen the green book movie and im going to talk this evening really about a broader story. That story is about the automobile. And the role the automobile played in africanamerican life. I would like you all to think about how important your mobility is to you. How important is that you can travel where you want to when you want to. How important that is that to american liberty . The ability to travel freely is something that all of us in this room take for granted. Butts, if you think about the role that liberty that mobility played for africanamericans, very much american history, africanamericans were prohibited from traveling freely. Travel, and the idea of journey, is central to the africanamerican experience. The ordeal of the Middle Passage and then slave met begins the journey for africanamericans. It is central to be what it means to be black in this country. But the idea of travel is about forced travel. This is a pass, its a slave possum that says please let benjamin make daniel newmarket and shenandoah, virginia and return on monday tuesday next to montpelier for missus madison, june 1, 1843. So, africanamericans traveling had to have passes. They had to have permission. Freedom is so important to many enslaved persons, that they ran away. They sold themselves and exercise their freedom of movement. I have a 5yearold granddaughter and she has given me the kindergarten cold. [laughter] in the early 20th century, the great migration which is the next step in the journey for africanamericans is the story of the greatest Mass Movement of people in this countrys history. Seeking Job Opportunities in the north and fleeing racism and poverty in the south, as many as 7 million africanamericans left their homes seeking refuge in such cities as chicago, new york, detroit, newark, where my parents moved and philadelphia where my uncle moved. With expanding opportunities in education and employment became more and more black citizens among the ranks of the black middle class. Read him of mobility, to go where you wanted when you wanted became essential. But it also came to meet the ability to avoid the indignity of the jim crow bus and the Jim Crow Railroad car. Here is a jim crow bus. And the first half of the 20th century, behavior and etiquettes for africanamericans was prescribed by geography and by custom. If you were from a particular place, you knew what the rules were. Rules change from place to place. Throughout the united states. Each state had its own rules. Each community had its own expected etiquette. An did not know the rules of racial etiquette. Particular driving etiquette was also expected. Africanamericans faced segregation in most aspects of public travel and accommodation in the south where it was overt. But in the north, it was dictated by custom so it was the fact of segregation of buses, taxis, trains, hotels, restaurants, beaches, and just about any place that people gathered. This is a Jim Crow Railroad car. Insulting, emulating, as well as dependent on timetables. Although they were only supposed to write in the south, many of them ran in the north as well. Africanamericans, even if you purchase a firstclass ticket were often expected to go into the jim crow car. This is a colombian goal for rearward car from 19209. You can see the word colored on the backseats. The automobile gave African Americans freedom. It freed black travelers and the tyranny of the Jim Crow Railroad car and bus. It also offered freedom of movement and it offered dignity. Africanamericans found that the segregated train gave them no dignity. Heres your own private ruling liver room. If you were driving and your own car that a private space, it was protected, you are free from the segregated insults. You are free from listening to the bus driver telling you to move to the back of the bus. You are freed from the railroad car that might be right behind the engine. This was really an important change in africanamerican life, the automobile. By the 1950s, with the interstate highway system, upwardly mobile black families were able to travel and become travel consumers. They started to consume travel, just as they consumed things like refrigerators and televisions and coffee percolators. They use the dollars in their disposal income to purchase automobiles and campers and hotel rooms and restaurant meals. With their history of forced travel, it was important for the black middle class to travel for leisure. They chose to travel in because they could. Often parents worked hard to make sure their children were not aware of the indignities they faced. So the children installed in the backseat of these cars, werent always even aware of the indignities their parents faced. No were they aware of the danger their parents face when they went out on the road. Now, if you think about the make and model of automobiles, the make and model was very much tied to identity. Africanamericans purchased larger cars. We know this from Market Studies that were done of africanamericans that were conducted in the 1940s and 50s by Research Firms for the black newspaper. Africanamerican motorists preferred large, heavy, u. S. And oldsmobiles. Those kind of cars we would now called gas pumpers. These are not small cars. I think africanamericans preferred large cars because they offered protection, they were hard to turn over, they were a place to sleep if necessary. You could carry blankets and pillows, you could sleep in your car. You could query water for the radiator, you carried extra fan belts those of big coleman coolers full of food because she couldnt stop at a restaurant. Black motorists created a home away from home and their automobile. This is an ad for the buick electra. It says all of the electrolux fireplace. So the electra was a heavy car and you could sleep in it if you needed to. When civil rights worker needed a car to travel through rural mississippi, he chose an oldsmobile rocket 88. The rocket was large enough to enable edgar to stretch out to the night on the front seat and it responded immediately if he hit the accelerator, enabling him to get away from the pursuing car. This is a picture of the rocket 88. We know that he died by his car in the driveway shot by a sniper on june 12, 1963. Africanamericans also sought their automobiles as a symbol of class status. This is a cadillac on a harlem street. Africanamericans were often prevented by discrimination for purchasing houses. You couldnt buy a house because your neighborhood was redlined and banks would not give you a mortgage. Therefore, the car became their largest and most important purchase. Therefore, africanamericans use their disposable income to buy beautiful cars. Now you may have heard the stereotypes that all African Americans bought cadillacs. Africanamericans purchase catalogs exactly the same proportion percentage as white americans its 3 . 3 of africanamericans purchase cadillacs. That is the stereotype that all aftermath and had those cadillacs. The preferred car was the buick or oldsmobile. But for africanamericans travel by car posed a paradox. They had the freedom to travel, but they were forced to stay in segregated black neighborhoods in segregated black tourist accommodations that would accept them. Now, i would like to think for a minute about what it was like for all americans before they were cars. Before the automobile. Before the automobile, people generally stayed put. They didnt travel very far at all from their own neighborhood. Whites people generally stayed in white neighborhoods, black people generally state in black neighborhoods. In some port neighborhoods, black and white people lived sidebyside. The country was generally segregated by race. Now think about what happens with the automobile. With their cars, African Americans crisscross the country traveling through white spaces to get from a safe black space to another safe black space. To get from a black neighborhoods black resort they had to go through a variety of white spaces where they were unwelcome. They faced fines, billboards, posters and objects that range from insulting to frighting. They asserted their rights to unfettered travel by going where they wanted, when they wanted, and it could be dangerous. The landscape for american travelers was fraught with psychologically and emotionally damaging messages. This is just one example of those kinds of messages. Welcome to clan country sign. This is a restaurant chain that was popular on the west coast, started in Salt Lake City and diners entered the restaurant through the giant coons mouth. This is the banner that welcomes visitors to greenville, texas. Greenville welcomes the blackest land, the whitest people. Of course, there were hundreds of sundown towns in the united states. As africanamericans traveled, they were faced with towns that actually had signs that said if you are black you need to be out of town before sundown. These communities were all over the united states, many, many in the midwest. Many in the west and even a few in connecticut in the northeast. Theres a great story that a marshal told. He was standing on a train car or train platform waiting for a train to shreveport. A man came up to him and said, this was before he was the supreme justice it was ernies a lawyer for the naacp. The man said jim, nager boy, what are you doing in this town . He said im waiting for the train to shreveport. The man said will or boy you better be out of this town before sundown. The sun has never set with the nager in this town. Thats a story that he says in his autobiography. Some africanamericans face all kinds of intimidation and even real dangerous when they travel. This is a fair in colorado. I have to wonder why were they were in these outfits on the ferris will . So africanamericans also depended on travel guides. Like the negro motorist book that was produced in york city. How many of you have heard of the negro motorist book . How many of you. How many of heard of all the other travel guides that existed . There were many different travel guides for a variety of audiences. If you part of a church group, a fraternity, or sorority, there were guides that found special housing for you. There were guides for show people there were many different guides in the back of black newspapers and magazines their travel guides as well. So the green book is the most long lasting of the africanamericans travel guides. The reason it was so longlasting is because of their relationship with standard oil. Which is exxon or formally esso gas station. It was owned by standard oil and they saw africanamericans as they market. They had enlightened self interest. They thought these people have money and we would like to get some of it. And they had a policy of nondiscrimination in their bathroom. At their gas stations, so africanamericans very often preferred esso gasoline. And they gave away the green book. That helped victor green to make his green book successful. The idea for the green book was based on jewish travel guides. Victor green rights in the very first issue of the green book that is jewish brethren gave him the idea for the travel guide. If you are a jewishamerican and you are traveling, you also needed to be concerned about places to stay. Very often if you call the hotel and you said jim schwartz or ruben, you would find that suddenly they had no rooms available. Jewish newspapers and there were jewish guides that told you places you can stay. And places you can observe the dietary laws. Karine really believe travel is fatal to prejudice. He believed the people went out across the country it would help relieve prejudice in the country. This is a quote from marc twain from the innocents abroad. He says travel is fader for trip prejudice actor green adopt that is his mantra. This is victor green and his wife, alma. He was a postal worker, opened a business in harlem he open the Green Publishing Company. What is so important, and the reason i was talking show how much is because victor green died in 1960. The Green Publishing Company was and operated by alma greene and by four other women. It was a five woman operation. This was a business, Publishing Business was very unusual for women to be working in publishing and this time period, much less running a Publishing Company. Alamo green continues to run the Publishing Company until the late 1960s. Victor green had a variety of ways of finding places to put in his green book. And almo, have to make sure is in there. One of the way sending out postcards and letters and asking his travelers, people who had a good experiences traveling to send him information about the places they stayed. The green book included gas stations, and this one of courses and esso station, hotels, motels, restaurants, ymcas but also churches, doctors, beauticians, barbers, and there was an article at least one article in each issue. An article might tell you about philadelphia and the things you could do and see in philadelphia. Or it might tell you about chicago. Usually they are geographically situated and they told you the places where you might be welcome to visit. The green book also recorded the black middle class and reflects black middle class values about polite and well mannered behavior. I think you can see that here, its a very charming middleclass couple with matched luggage. You can see a little bit of their car and you can see their suburban neighborhood. Thats in the background. It was the black middle class that could afford to travel. And green shows us the ideal black traveling couple. Over the course of the life of the green book, the content expanded from just new york, new jersey and connecticut, to the entire east coast. Then the entire united states, than all of north america and finally europe, africa and asia. But there were other travel guides like this one, this is the Baltimore Afroamerican travel map. It is part of the newspaper. Other guides were called the go guide, travel guide, though travel guide, and bronze americans just to name a few. You can also see the middle class here with a couple playing golf in the upper righthand corner. Many of the places that were listed in the guide, especially the early ones were either ymca storm rooms, or the home of africanamerican families. Few had an empty room or next to room, women rented their rooms out. They might provide a Good Breakfast as a way to make extra money for their family. This is a ymca room. This is the rock if in if you have visited the African American museum in washington d. C. , and seen the rock. It was a leisure place to stay in maine. As an africanamerican guesthouse that was read trent run by Hazel Mclaren this is the rock innocent regional environment. This was a place that was away from the beach, the beaches were segregated and enforced. You could go and stay for a week or two weeks at rock rest. You could enjoy your meals at rock rest, hazel was a very good cook. She catered meals for the White Community as well as the black community. There were other places to stay like mckenzies court in hot springs arkansas, which was eight motor hotel and perfect for the automobile. You could park right outside your door. Most of these places were owned by africanamericans. Some were owned by white americans but catered only to black people. These are some advertisements from the green book, they offered the same values and products that were offered for whites in parallel establishments. Some of the folks that operated these places clearly placed themselves in the ad to show readers that they were black. This grainy picture is of Shenandoah National park. I know the National Parks like to say you are always welcome at the national park. The National Parks were always open to africanamericans. The problem was that all of the park facilities, the guesthouses, the hotels, the restaurants, were offered rated by private individuals and they discriminated. Said this is the picnic ground throat negroes at Shenandoah National park. It took a long time for the National Parks to become integrated. I would like to talk for a few minutes about the role of the automobile and the Civil Rights Movement. It was really very importance the automobile played a key and pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement spurred you could not have the Civil Rights Movement without the automobile. This is where supermarkets, and where its clearly tying themselves to doctor Martin Luthe