Green Book gets Oscar gold - African-American letter carrier created the book that helped inspire the movie - NALC
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Green Book
gets Oscar gold
African-American letter carrier created
the book that helped inspire the movie
O n Feb. 24, actress Julia Roberts announced to the world that “Green Book”
was the winner of the 2019 Oscar for Best Picture. As we reported in the Janu-
ary issue of The Postal Record—shortly after the movie had premiered—it tells
the tale of a black musician and his white driver who travel through the segre-
gated South, based on the true story of Don Shirley, a Jamaican-American pianist.
What makes the movie noteworthy for letter carriers is that the Green Book
would not exist without another true story, that of the late Victor Hugo Green, a
39-year letter carrier, an NALC member and the creator many years ago of a travel
guide known as the Green Book.
Below is an updated version of the September 2013 Postal Record article about
Green and his book.
T
he 1940s and ’50s are remem- knowing where you could stop, where
bered as the birth of the great you could eat, where you could stay.
American road trip. President An entrepreneurial letter carrier
Dwight Eisenhower cham- from New York City’s Harlem neigh-
pioned the creation of a system of borhood saw a need and created The
interstate highways that crisscrossed Negro Motorist Green Book—com-
the nation, fueling the construction monly referred to as simply the “Green
of service stations, roadside diners Book”—a travel guide for black- and
and motels. The growing middle white-owned hotels, inns and even
class was getting out and seeing the private residences that would accept
United States. African-American travelers. He used
But that was also still the time his NALC and other postal contacts to
of Jim Crow laws in the South and find the listings all across the country.
racial discrimination in other For example, in 1949 for Montgomery,
parts of the country. The laws and AL, the guidebook recommended the
practices were designed to keep Douglas Hotel and Bonnie’s Restau-
African-Americans from voting rant as safe places. In 1956, travelers
or even patronizing businesses, to Hartford, CT, could stay at Mrs.
including many restaurants and Johnson’s house at 2016 Main St.
hotels. Some towns had what were The guide was the creation of Victor
known as “sundown” rules, mean- Hugo Green, a native of New York. In
ing African-Americans had to be 1913, at the age of 21, Green was living
out of town by sunset, or else. in Hackensack, NJ, and went to work at
For many, traveling wasn’t the local post office as a letter carrier.
an adventure to be filled simply With schooling that extended only
Victor H. Green as pictured in the Spring with awe and pleasure, but also with through seventh grade, Green—as did
1956 edition of the Green Book embarrassment and fear. Imagine not many African-Americans—found a
12 The Postal Record April 2019
The 1940, Spring 1956
and 1949 editions
managing Duke,
Green heard many
stories of humilia-
tion and violence
from members of
his community.
He looked to other
travel guides for
inspiration on creat-
ing a tool for helping
African-Americans.
“The Jewish press
has long published
information about
places that are
good, dependable, federal job with the restricted and there
Post Office Department, even if the pay are numerous publications that give
was low (see NALC’s history book Car- the gentile whites all kinds of informa-
riers in a Common Cause for more on tion,” he wrote in his introduction to
letter carriers’ experiences at the time). the 1949 edition, recounting why he
Green also joined NALC’s Hackensack had created the guide.
Branch 425, now known as Bergen The idea crystalized in his mind in
County Merged. By 1933, he continued 1932 and would see its first edition
his route in New Jersey but had moved printed in 1936, covering just New York
to Harlem, just over the George Wash- City. The demand was so great that the
ington Bridge. following year it became a national
There the Harlem Renaissance was guide, and eventually expanded with
still in swing, rich with culture, music international listings. To this day, peo-
and art, when important writers and ple who used the guide speak about its
social activists including W. E. B. Du importance in providing information
Bois and Langston Hughes were at- and reassurance to African-Americans
tempting to redefine what it meant to far from home.
be a black American, creating a new “It didn’t matter where you went, Jim
racial pride. Green must have been at- Crow was everywhere then, and black
tracted to this new spirit, as by 1933 he travelers needed this badly,” Julian Bond
was managing musician Robert Duke, said in a 2010 interview when he was
his brother-in-law. president of the National Association
Green was described as a man of for the Advancement of Colored People
“tremendous drive and energy” by (NAACP). “It was a guidebook that told
Novera Dashiell, an assistant editor, in you not where the best places were to
the 1956 guide: “Tall, well-built, always eat, but where there was any place.”
impeccably groomed, with an easy Bond spoke from personal experi-
affable manner.” People who knew ence. “My family had a Green Book
him said that whenever he was out and when I was young, and used it to travel
about, he always dressed fashionably in the South to find out where we could
and would change into his uniform stop to eat, where we could spend the
only once he got to work. night in a hotel or someone’s home,” he
As a union member and a civic lead- said. “I always thought it was called the
er, and perhaps because of his work Green Book because it was green.”
April 2019 The Postal Record 13
“The Green Book was, I think, “To live in a country where we’re not
an institution in black life,” hardly welcomed anywhere and where
Ernest Green, no relation, said our money is no good and our dignity
in a 2011 interview. “It was one is trampled on daily says a lot about us
of those unknown survival tools as a people and not giving up our right
for black people that had to move for full citizenship.”
around the country.” While the book’s main goal was to
Ernest Green was one of the offer protection and reassurance, it
Little Rock Nine, a group who resembled, and offered the services
became the first African-American of, a travel guide. (In St. George’s,
students at Central High School. Bermuda, for example, the 1949 guide
He remembers his family using suggested renting bicycles from Dowl-
the book to travel from Arkansas ing’s Cycle Livery on York Street.)
to Virginia in the 1950s. “I knew In 1947, Green expanded the book to
the Green Book was a necessity for include a vacation reservation service,
us to have a place to stay.” to help travelers make advance plans.
The guide was especially And by 1952, as the book had broad-
The Hotel Clark in Memphis, TN, in 1939 popular with African-Americans ened its scope from mainly hotel and
specialized in lodging for “Colored only.” who traveled frequently for work, restaurant listings to include barbers,
such as jazz musicians and ballplay- beauty salons, bars and nightclubs,
ers in the Negro leagues. The Negro it was renamed The Negro Travelers’
Leagues Baseball Museum has a copy Green Book.
of a Green Book that belonged to the “White barbers would not cut black
legendary Buck O’Neil—a player, scout people’s hair. White beauty parlors
and manager for the Kansas City Mon- would not take black women as cus-
archs and a member of the Baseball tomers,” Bond explained of the need
Hall of Fame. for expanded listings. “You needed the
Victor Green set up extensive con- Green Book to tell you where you can
tacts to get his information, including go without having doors slammed in
using his NALC connections. “There your face.”
are postal workers everywhere,” Bond Victor Green believed that the
explained. “And he used them as entrepreneurial spirit that propelled
guides to tell him: ‘Well, here’s a good his guide could be a driving force
place here, a good place there.’ ” for advancing the black community,
Green’s most important partner- especially through the expanding use
ship was with the Esso (now Exxon) of advertising that marked the late
gasoline station chain. Esso, a subsid- 1950s and early 1960s while he was
iary of Standard Oil, was progressive still alive. “If Negro-owned business
for its time, selling franchises to and is good, it can be better with advertis-
employing African-Americans in its ing,” Assistant Editor Dashiell quoted
corporate offices. Esso sold the guides him as saying in the 1956 edition. She
in its service stations and advertised in explained, “His philosophy is that we
the guide’s pages, along with helping can create our OWN ‘name brands.’”
Green finance the publication. He encouraged youngsters to enter
People in Harlem and the broader the advertising field and noted to his
African-American community knew readers that white-owned businesses
the importance of what Green had cre- had seen the power of advertising in
ated, and some supported it financial- the guide and “have come to value and
ly. Author Langston Hughes took out desire your patronage.”
an ad in the 1947 edition proclaiming, Green worked on the annual guides
14 The Postal Record April 2019while continuing to deliver the mail,
though records suggest he didn’t profit
much from the guides. In 1940, he
reported his income as $2,100, which
was the average pay for a letter carrier
at the time. By 1942, he had a route in
Leonia, NJ, where he worked until 1952,
when after 39 years of carrying the mail,
he retired at age 60. With help, he con-
tinued publishing some 15,000 guides
annually until his death in 1960. The
guide remained in publication by oth-
ers, with the 1959 guide listing his wife,
Alma, as the editor and publisher, and
the 1966 edition lists two publishers of Green’s relatives—and
who weren’t related to Green. A printer have yet to find any
who printed the Green Book said that documentation on the
a daughter of Victor’s brought him the daughter mentioned by
master pages of the last several guides, the printer.
until about 1966, after the passage of But for the tens of
the 1964 Civil Rights Act had made dis- thousands of travelers
crimination by businesses illegal. who used the guides
In the more than 55 years since the during the three
passage of the Civil Rights Act, the Green decades they were
Book had largely been forgotten except in circulation, their
by older generations whose families may importance was known
have used the guides. But interest in the firsthand. They were
guide has seen a resurgence. After our truly a roadmap for
2013 article, the New York Public Library friendly faces in hostile
created a digital library of the guides territory.
allowing historians and researchers to It’s likely that Green
make use of the data. would not be too
For example, early editions of the upset about his guide
Green Book reveal that most of the being relegated to his-
listings where African-Americans were tory books. He often
welcomed in New York City were in Har- said that he looked
lem. Over the course of the guidebook’s forward to the time
run, hotels in Manhattan started to be when the Green Book
listed as well, documenting the spread would no longer be
of the rejection of segregation. necessary.
As interest in the Green Book has “There will be a
grown, stories incorporating the publi- day sometime in the
cation have been made into illustrated near future when this guide will not Listings from the 1949 edition of the
books for children, plays and even have to be published,” he wrote in Green Book and the cover from the
1949. “That is when we as a race will 1959 edition.
documentary and fictional films.
Not much is known about Green, have equal opportunities and privi-
the man, other than what was writ- leges in the United States. It will be a
ten about him in his guides and the great day for us to suspend this publi-
historical facts NALC was able to track cation for then we can go wherever we
down. We were not able to locate any please.” PR
April 2019 The Postal Record 15You can also read
