• Complain

Candacy A. Taylor - Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America

Here you can read online Candacy A. Taylor - Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2020, publisher: Abrams Press, genre: Art. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

Candacy A. Taylor Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America
  • Book:
    Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America
  • Author:
  • Publisher:
    Abrams Press
  • Genre:
  • Year:
    2020
  • Rating:
    5 / 5
  • Favourites:
    Add to favourites
  • Your mark:
    • 100
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

The first book to explore the historical role and residual impact of the Green Book, a travel guide for black motorists Published from 1936 to 1966, the Green Book was hailed as the black travel guide to America. At that time, it was very dangerous and difficult for African-Americans to travel because black travelers couldnt eat, sleep, or buy gas at most white-owned businesses. The Green Book listed hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses that were safe for black travelers. It was a resourceful and innovative solution to a horrific problem. It took courage to be listed in the Green Book, and Overground Railroad celebrates the stories of those who put their names in the book and stood up against segregation. It shows the history of the Green Book, how we arrived at our present historical moment, and how far we still have to go when it comes to race relations in America.

Candacy A. Taylor: author's other books


Who wrote Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make
Contents
Landmarks
Page List
Editor Howard W Reeves Designer Anderson Newton Design Copyright 2020 C - photo 1Editor Howard W Reeves Designer Anderson Newton Design Copyright 2020 - photo 2Editor Howard W Reeves Designer Anderson Newton Design Copyright 2020 - photo 3Editor Howard W Reeves Designer Anderson Newton Design Copyright 2020 - photo 4

Editor: Howard W. Reeves

Designer: Anderson Newton Design

Copyright 2020 Candacy Taylor

For photo credits, see

Cover 2020 Abrams

Published in 2020 by Abrams Press, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018958273

ISBN: 978-1-4197-3817-3

eISBN: 978-1-68335-657-8

Abrams books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact specialsales@abramsbooks.com or the address below.

Abrams Press is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

ABRAMS The Art of Books 195 Broadway New York NY 10007 abramsbookscom For - photo 5
ABRAMS The Art of Books
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
abramsbooks.com

For Ron, Mom, Aimee, Adger, Sophie, and Chris

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ARE WE THERE YET DRIVING WHILE BLACK The - photo 6
CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
ARE WE THERE YET?


DRIVING WHILE BLACK


The BUSINESS of the GREEN BOOK


The FIGHT


A LICENSE to LEAVE


ALL ABOARD


VACATION


MUSIC VENUES


The ROOTS of ROUTE 66


WOMEN and the GREEN BOOK


A CHANGE Is GONNA COME


INTEGRATION and the DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD of PROGRESS

EPILOGUE
AMERICA AFTER the GREEN BOOK

INTRODUCTION
ARE WE THERE YET?

Dont you dare say a word. Ron was sitting in the back seat as his father pulled the car to a stop at the side of the road. His father had told him to be quiet before, but this was the first time Ron felt the words reverberate to the pit of his stomach. Moments later, the sheriff stood over the well-appointed 1953 Chevy sedan complete with all the modern features you read about in the magazines.

Where did you get this vehicle? What are you doing here? And who are these people with you? the sheriff asked.

Rons father answered, Its my employers car. He pointed to his wife, sitting upright and expressionless in the passenger seat. He pretended that she wasnt his wife and said, This is my employers maid, and that is her son in the back. Im taking them home.

Ron at age seven The sheriff took a long hard look at Rons mother and then - photo 7

Ron at age seven

The sheriff took a long, hard look at Rons mother and then angled his eyes to the back seat. A young Ronald sat tight-lipped, too afraid to turn his head or even take a breath. Wheres your hat? the sheriff barked at Rons dad.

Hanging up right behind me in the back seat, officer.

The sheriff waved. All right. Move on.

As they drove north across the Tennessee border, a sad, eerie silence hung in the air. The jovial conversation they were having right before the sheriff pulled them over had stopped dead. And although there was no discussion about what had just happened, the gravity of the situation was clear. Ron watched Daddy and Mama exchange knowing glances and then turned his head to look at the black, unassuming cap that had been hanging next to him in the back seat ever since he could remember. It wasnt until that moment that he realized why he had never seen his father wearing it. Mama wasnt a maid, and Daddy wasnt a driver. He had a good job with the railroad, and this was their family car. Until that day, Ron never paid attention to that cap, but now he realized that it wasnt just any hat. It was a chauffeurs hat. A ruse, a propa lifesaver.

During the Jim Crow era, the chauffeurs hat was the perfect cover for every middle-class black man pulled over and harassed by the police. If Rons father had told the sheriff the truththat he was driving his own car and that they were a family on vacationthe sheriff wouldnt have believed him. He would have assumed the car was stolen. In the event that the sheriff did believe it was Rons fathers car, the rage and jealousy he might have felt at the thought of a black man owning a nicer car than a police officer might have triggered a beating, torture, or even murder. From that day on, Ron noticed these hats strategically placed, like unarmed weapons, in the back seat of nearly every black mans car.

..........

Standing in the kitchen between the sage-speckled countertop and the wall-mounted oven, I listened to Rons story, stone-faced. Everybody had one, he said, referring to the chauffeurs cap. And you always kept it in the car. And then, without any provocation, other stories about his days growing up in Tennessee tumbled out. Ron talked about his cousin slipping out of town in the middle of the night because the Ku Klux Klan was set to lynch him. I listened with a knot in my stomach, trying to swallow my rage and sadness before tears filled my eyes. I didnt want my emotions to distract him from telling his story.

Ron Burford was my stepfather. I had known this man for more than thirty years, but this was the first time he had told me anything about the pain of growing up in the Jim Crow South. And its not that he was a quiet man; Ron loved to talk. He could talk for hours. My mom and my sister and I would try to scoot out of the kitchen before he started in on another one of his long Southern yarns, ones that we had heard before. But it wasnt until I started this project that he shared these stories with me. It was only then, at the age of forty-six, that I realized I had earned his trust. This was a huge accomplishment, because after what he and most black men of his generation had lived through in this country, he felt he couldnt trust anyone.

I think Ron started to trust me around 2014, soon after I called home asking about the Green Book. I had just seen a copy of it for the first time, tucked away under glass at the Autry Museum of the American West, in Los Angeles. It was a travel guide that was published for black people during the Jim Crow era. Id never known such a thing existed. Right after leaving the Autry, I called my parents in Columbus, Ohio, and asked Ron if he had ever used the Green Book. He said, Im not sure; probably. There were a few black guides back then.

He was right. There were about a dozen other black travel guides, but the Green Book was in print for the longest period of time and had the widest readership. Victor Hugo Green, a man with a seventh-grade education, published the first Green Book, in Harlem in 1936, and he worked on it until his death in 1960. His wife, Alma, took up the mantle and kept the Green Book going until 1962. In 1965, Langley Waller, an engraver and former writer for Harlems newspaper the

Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America»

Look at similar books to Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Reviews about «Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America»

Discussion, reviews of the book Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.