Wikipedia:Today's featured article/January 18, 2016
The Negro Motorist Green Book was an annual guidebook for African-American travelers in the United States. It was originated and published by New York City mail carrier Victor H. Green from 1936 to 1966, during the Jim Crow era, when racial discrimination was widespread. Although discrimination and poverty limited African-American car ownership, many middle-class blacks took to driving to avoid segregation on public transportation. They faced inconveniences such as businesses refusing to serve them or repair their vehicles and hotels refusing them accommodation or food. They even faced threats of physical violence and forcible expulsion from whites-only sundown towns. Green intended the book "to give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties". It became the definitive Jim Crow travel guide for blacks, but was little known outside the African-American community. Its publication ceased shortly after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Interest in it has revived in the early 21st century in connection with studies of black travel during the Jim Crow era. (Full article...)