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 FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 2010 4:41 am |
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Local News 
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1949 travel aid shows how few places blacks were welcome in Washington In 1949, a black American planning a road trip may have packed more than a suitcase and a map. For 75 cents, some gas stations sold a publication called “The Negro Motorist Green Book.”Money limits most travelers. Affordability and convenience help us choose where to stay, shop and dine. Not so long ago, all across this country, African-Americans were limited not only by the size of their budgets but by the color of their skin. During Black History Month, I expect to read about the days when “whites only” signs were posted at drinking fountains and lunch counters in the American South. I never expected to see printed evidence that just five years before I was born, very few places right here in Everett were on record as welcoming black travelers. “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” started in 1936, is described in an online research project by the University of Michigan called “The Automobile in American Life and Society.” The books were created by Victor H. Green, a black travel agent from New York, and sold in the Standard Oil Company’s Esso gas stations. A 1949 edition of “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” part of the collection in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., includes an introduction titled “The Green Book helps solve your travel problems” by Wendell P. Alston, of Esso Standard Oil. “The Negro traveler’s inconveniences are many, and they are increasing because today so many more are traveling,” Alston wrote. “The Green Book with its list of hotels, boarding houses, restaurants, beauty shops, barber shops and various other services can most certainly help solve your travel problems.” The 1949 book’s pages resemble the yellow pages of a phone book and include advertising. Some states and cities had dozens of entries. In Montana, though, just one “Tourist Home” was listed, a residence on Park Street in Helena. A single restaurant — Boise’s Union Pacific Greyhound Depot — was listed for all of Idaho in 1949. Among Washington’s listings in the 1949 edition were many hotels, restaurants, taverns and barber shops in Seattle. A closer look shows they’re all in one area, mostly on Jackson and Madison streets. The 1949 Green Book had three entries for Everett, all of them “Tourist Homes.” Outside of Seattle, not a single restaurant was listed in the state. There were no entries in Eastern Washington. The Everett homes were at 22nd Street and Wetmore Avenue; at Hoyt Avenue and 36th; and at Rainier Street and 16th. Names listed with the addresses were J. Samuels, Mrs. G. Samuels, and Mrs. J.T. Payne. Esther Hall Mumford, author of “Seattle’s Black Victorians 1852-1901,” said Friday that she believes one of the people listed with the Everett homes was a Ginny or Jenny Samuels, who was active in forming a state chapter of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs in the 1920s. Mumford, who is African-American, was raised in the South. She came to Seattle in 1961 to attend college. She hadn’t heard of “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” but wasn’t surprised by its limited entries. “I grew up in the South under segregation,” she said. “Thank God for bus depots back then, but even bus depots were segregated.” Even in Seattle, Mumford said, “we couldn’t go into most restaurants.” After World War II, she said, many who had come north for work during the war still retained attitudes from the segregated South. “People flocking north brought their own ways with them,” she said. I hadn’t heard of the Green Book, either. It was 61-year-old Janet Koglin, of Stanwood, who ran across it on the Internet and called to tell me about it. “Isn’t it amazing?” Koglin said Friday. As a young woman, Koglin had an inkling of what it’s like to be an outsider in a new place. Born in New Jersey to Italian-Americans, she moved in the 1960s to a tiny town in North Dakota with her teacher husband, Glen. “I’d go shopping, and people would say, ‘Oh, you’re the Italian who moved into town.’ “It was quite an experience to be a minority,” Koglin said. “It gave me a taste.” Learn more “The Negro Motorist Green Book” was published for African-American travelers from the mid-1930s into the 1950s. To view pages from the 1949 edition, part of the Henry Ford Museum collection in Dearborn, Mich., go to http://tinyurl.com/motoristbook. Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com. |
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(22) - Tulalip man accused in a toddler's death is a no-show (19)
- Special session likely to finish budget, tax increase (12)
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- Woman still in critical condition after Monday crash on Highway 9 (11)
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COMMENTS
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What an interesting bit of history. Good column Julie!
C Morton | Feb 10, 2010 4:16 pm | 0 replies | Request removal
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The liberal bastion of the Northwest has a history that didn't embrace inclusiveness??
Now there is a blinding flash of the obvious.
The only difference today is that the discrimination is on the basis of such things as economic class (i.e., "we can't have THOSE PEOPLE in our neighborhood!) or place of residence - South Everett (Casino Road) vs. North Everett (where most Council Members live).
Everett News | Feb 7, 2010 5:53 am | 2 replies | Request removal
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Don't you mean "Liberal Bastards??? What a bunch of WHINERS!!! Why isn't there a "White" History Month? Or better yet, an AMERICAN INDIAN History Month!!!! Whay does it always have to revolve around the poor Blacks!!!
Scott Partridge | Feb 07, 2010 9:29 pm | Request removal
not all in n.everett are its west everett east everett is dirt poor gato the rich like the view of the water the less fortunite is everyware
mark Bunney | Feb 08, 2010 12:42 pm | Request removal
as we look to the past we see wrong thinking on many fronts. we point fingers.black history long pastdew gorge washington carver was a great man.a list of men great men all black all great men why all the hate let go of the hate it will eat you up it is a holiday not a day to hate whites be happy live with the lord in your hearts and learn to love not hate the world will be a better place.
mark Bunney | Feb 8, 2010 12:26 pm | 0 replies | Request removal
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I thought Black History Month was supposed to be about blacks who've been very successful and contributed to our country in a positive way? Why don't you write something along those lines? There's plenty of examples to choose from. People of your ilk want to simply turn it into a "Hate Whitey" month. You disgust me.
Scott Coleman | Feb 7, 2010 12:46 pm | 0 replies | Request removal
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The "article" is about some little book from 1949 ---61 years ago.
Hey, if ya'll wanna take that as a guilt trip or label the article as "PC". well, whatever.
It's an article about a little book, (hello?) sold 61 years ago (hello?) & somehow this gets ya'll all hot & bothered.
---No WONDER we need black history month, when there are sooooo many still living in the ignant ages.
cme everett | Feb 7, 2010 9:25 pm | 0 replies | Request removal
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Are you simply trying to show what a bigoted, mean country this is? For your information, Africa is a large continent with many indigenous races, so the term "African-American" doesn't mean anything, it's just another stupid PC term. Egypt is part of Africa. Look up some pictures of Egygtians and try to tell me you would call them "African-American" if they were in this country.
Scott Coleman | Feb 7, 2010 12:38 pm | 0 replies | Request removal
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Daniel, What we learn in Sunday School doesn't always get put into practice-unfortunately. The Church doesn't always represent our Lord as well as we should. Thus the need for grace, and continuing to grow to Spiritual maturity. There is a forrest of Christians in this world. Only looking at the individual trees will obscure the view of what God is doing with ordinary sinners in need of grace. But you're right about Bob Jones University. And some others. My suggestion is to find a local church or learning facility that teaches grace, not legalism. Christianity, real Christianity, works, inspite of some individuals involved. Fortunately, it's about Jesus, not about me. But by His grace, I continue to get better.
Have a good Sunday.
Mike Sams | Feb 7, 2010 9:29 am | 0 replies | Request removal
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While there was discrimination the author reads too much into these guides. Just because no one advertised or affirmatively acted to secure a listing does not mean there weren't restaurants, etc welcoming people of color. This was a business venture of Esso (now Exxon) at a time when cross country travel was difficult and unusual (primarily rail, no interstate highway yet). My guess is that in 1949 the AAA guidebooks were one of the few highway travel books, and that it was relatively hard to learn in advance much information about accomodations, restaurants, etc outside the big cities. There was little long distance travel, hence few listings.
Tim Borchers | Feb 7, 2010 8:15 am | 1 replies | Request removal
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Oh No!
How could you dare to inject logic into such a discussion. The fact that people did not buy advertising or otherwise take out a listing is a clear indication of their subtle attitudes. ("subtle attitude" - a term used whenever the objective facts of behavior are in conflict with our world view.)
Everett News | Feb 07, 2010 8:33 am | Request removal
As soon as the question is asked, the answers come hard and fast. Some will never forgive and let us forget our guilt. Some would deny the need to repent or feel guilty. Our past does influence who we will become. For many it is difficult to recover from our past. Change from pride and hate is difficult, for both the majority and the minority. Don't kid yourself. There will always be this struggle based upon pride and hate. Personally, I believe people do not really change in this area of pride and hate. We only modify our beliefs according to social pressures. Mostly we bury it under hidden agendas. Laws help some, but has limitations. Integration helps some, but has limitations. Separation helps some, but has limitations. It takes becoming different people to change who we are at our core. To suggest the answer to that will even stir up pride and hate from those who will argue against my views. But it is true nevertheless, no matter how hard we struggle against it. We will always hate someone until we are equal. We can try to be equal in many ways, but we are only equal in Christ Jesus. Even then, our equality is limited by our lack of Spiritual growth and tolenance for God's creation of all men, while striving to lessen the evil in all men. The struggle is as old as Cain and his brother Able. That struggle ended in murder. It was a warning to us all. A warning that has gone unheeded for thousands of years. God forgive us all. And in Christ Jesus, He has. Will not you try to forgive too? If you find it hard to forgive your neighbor, start with forgiving yourself. Guilt seems to be our one shared equality.
Mike Sams | Feb 7, 2010 3:53 am | 1 replies | Request removal
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This call to a Christian route to resolving guilt over past and continuing racial discrimination in America fails to note that churches were, and are, among the greatest offenders in racial discrimination--and not only in the South. Even today, Bob Jones University, which relaxed its ban on interracial dating a few years ago, requires written permission from parents if a studen wants to date a person of a different race. As a kid in Sunday School in Everett I used to sing "Red, and yellow, black and white all are precious in His sight" but there weren't any red, yellow, or black anywhere within my sight.
Daniel Nasman | Feb 07, 2010 8:07 am | Request removal