TACOMA, Wash. — "The Negro Motorist Green Book" is on display in Tacoma at the Washington State History Museum. It's part of a traveling exhibit produced by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. (SITES)
The exhibit is inspired by a national tourist guide that was first published in 1936. It was designed to help African-Americans plot a safe passage through cities across the united states.
"Traveling while black was a dangerous thing. You didn't know what to expect. You didn't know where to go or how they were going to react when you got there," explained Gwen Whiting, lead curator for the Washington State Historical Society.
The exhibit tells a more nuanced story than the ones often presented in Hollywood.
"The Green Book" movie introduced many audiences to the life-saving tour guide, but The Smithsonian's Marquette Folley said it was missing the heart of the true "Green Book" story, which the exhibit seeks to capture.
"At the core of the Green Book was allowing humans who had style, elegance, and grace, when they traveled to stay in places that understood that and also had style and elegance," Folley explained. "I was dismayed that Green Book businesses (in the movie) were ram shackled, brought down by a bias of what black businesses looked like in the 21st century. They just didn't look that way."
Through home videos, pictures, and artifacts, the traveling exhibit seeks to tell the full story — one of entrepreneurship and resilience.
For Washington, the relationship with the Green Book went beyond the role of travel guide.
"It was also a focus of resettlement," Whiting shared. "A lot of folks used the Green Book not just for family vacations, but because they were thinking about coming to the Pacific Northwest and they wanted to know both how to plan a journey and what to expect when they got here."
The Green Book was founded by a postal worker by the name of Victor Green and it stayed in publication for more than 30 years.
The exhibit celebrates its significance as an example of brilliance in the face of barriers.
The Negro Motorist Green Book is on display at the Washington State History Museum through June 12, 2022. Every third Thursday of the month, admission is free between 3 p.m. - 8 p.m.
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