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Just two generations ago, it was impossible for some people to travel freely in the United States.

For people of color, planning a road trip meant planning ways to avoid widespread discrimination. Without careful preparation, travel could mean running out of fuel while looking unsuccessfully for a gas station willing to serve you, or being turned away from a hotel that only allowed white customers.

This is why during the era of segregation, many people of color used a tool called the Negro Motorist Green Book.

“These books allowed African-American travelers to find gas stations, restaurants, hotels and other travelers' needs that were known to be safe for them,” said John Bendel-Dimmmick, social studies instructor at Ben Davis University High School. “In 2024, something like this would exist as an app or website, but in the 1940s and 1950s, it required doing the hard work of thumbing through lists of cities and amenities.”

To help his students understand the experience of having to use a Green Book to plan their travel, Mr. Bendel-Dimmick looked into purchasing reproductions of the books for them to work with. That purchase became possible with grant money from the Wayne Township Education Foundation and an organization called DonorsChoose.

“Most of the students had not heard of the Green Books before this project - one or two said they'd heard the name, but weren't completely sure what they were all about,” he said. “A couple of them made comments to the effect of how hard it is to imagine not being able to just pull off the highway and stop at any gas station or restaurant, that it would be difficult to get anywhere if you had to literally worry about your physical safety for even the most basic stops when driving anywhere long distance.”

The Library of Congress describes the Green Book as “an annual guidebook for African- American roadtrippers” founded and published by New York City mailman Victor Hugo Green from 1936 to 1967. The first edition of the book was focused on New York; it was eventually expanded to include much of North America.

The Green Book became “the bible of black travel,” according to the Library of Congress, during the era of laws and practices that enforced racial segregation in the U.S. The Green Book identified services and other places of businesses that were relatively friendly to African Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed the types of racial discrimination that gave birth to the Green Book, and its publication was ended a short time later.

Learning the story of the Green Book was both surprising and disappointing to Mr. Bendel-Dimmick’s students as they studied it in class. They used the Green Book reproductions to plan their own trips, and the experience was eye-opening.

“Many of them find it both fascinating and terrifying that the United States was so different such a relatively short time ago.” Mr. Bendel-Dimmick said. “Many of my students have grandparents who are old enough to have needed resources like the Green Book, and that drives home for them how real and relatively recent this is.”

The Green Book project has been such an effective learning tool in Mr. Bendel-Dimmick’s class that he anticipates repeating it in the future.

“This project is one that I will be doing every year for the foreseeable future,” he said. “It resonates with the students, forces them to think critically and problem solve, allows them to manipulate a primary source, accesses multiple learning modalities, and gives them a creative outlet for displaying their work.”

ABOUT THE WAYNE TOWNSHIP EDUCATION FOUNDATION
The Wayne Township Education Foundation (WTEF) provides community leadership to enrich, engage, and stimulate teaching and learning in the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township. WTEF accomplishes this by supporting school programs and resources, while recognizing excellence among students and staff. To learn more about WTEF and/or establishing a named, designated fund, call 317-988-7966, visit wtef.wayne.k12.in.us, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @WayneTwpEdFound.