NAVIGATING THE GREEN BOOK shares travel guides from the mid 20th century that catered to black travelers along with interactive mapping activities.
During the mid 20th century, African American travelers weren’t welcome at many restaurants and hotels. The Negro Travel’s Green Book was intended to provide guidance for black travelers.
Part of the NYPL Labs, this interactive online experience provides access to travel guides published from 1936 through 1966. Users can explore the guides, map a trip, or view data on a map. For the map trip project, users choose a date and enter two locations. Participants are then presented a map showing a route featuring food, lodging, and other stops along the way. Each stop shows a primary source document.
Librarians will find this website to be a fun way to teach the use of primary source documents while connecting to history content. Associate the project with the Civil Rights Movement and issues related to segregation and travel. Work with teachers to design an interdisciplinary project that involves math, history, social studies, and English. Consider connecting the mapping element to works of historical fiction from this time period.
To visit the website, go to http://publicdomain.nypl.org/greenbook-map/.
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