The Negro Motorist Green Book
July 13 - October 13, 2024
The Negro Motorist Green Book offers an immersive look at the reality of travel for African Americans in mid-century America and the annual guide that served as an indispensable resource for the nation’s rising African American middle class. The exhibition includes artifacts from business signs and postcards to historic footage, images and firsthand accounts. Together, they convey the apprehension felt by African American travelers but also the resilience, innovation and elegance of people choosing to live a full American existence. The Negro Motorist Green Book showcases the vibrant parallel world of African American business, the rise of the Black leisure class and the important role of “The Green Book” played in facilitating the second wave of the Great Migration.
The Negro Motorist Green Book was developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in collaboration with award-winning author, photographer and cultural documentarian Candacy Taylor. The exhibition was made possible through the support of Exxon Mobil corporation. The exhibition is supported locally by the Procter & Gamble Company.
Programs
Gallery Talks with author Candacy Taylor
July 13 at 11 a.m.
Experience the exhibition with Candacy Taylor, award-winning author of Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America.
Vacationing with Green Book
August 15 at 6 p.m.
Explore the history of the Green Book during a screening of The Green Book: Guide to Freedom. Meet a panel of locals who will share stories of growing up in the era of institutionalized segregation and how the Green Book became a local passport to freedom.
Share Your Green Book Story
September 21, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In partnership with the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library, the Freedom Center is collecting oral histories of personal experiences and memories of the Green Book, Jim Crow and navigating an era of exclusion and terror.
Location
Skirball gallery, third floor
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
50 East Freedom Way, Cincinnati, OH 45202
Admission
Included with general admission.
Free for Members and on Fifth Third Community Days.