The Documentary Highlighting the Real <em>Green Book</em>

In 1936, a black postal worker named Victor Hugo Green published the first edition of The Negro Motorist Green Book. At the time, the segregation-era guide was meant to direct black New York City residents to businesses they could frequent without facing the overt discrimination and threats of violence they encountered even up north. Demand soon grew for a more geographically expansive document, and the following year Green compiled and distributed the first national issue. “FOR EXTRA SERVICE … MENTION ‘THE GREEN BOOK,’ ” the cover’s header read, a direct address to the community it served.

, as it is most often called, became an invaluable resource to black people living in, and traveling through, America. It cataloged black-owned businesses around the country, directing motorists to establishments that served a wide range; toward the end of its run, it even included international listings. And now, more than 50 years after the final, 1966–67 edition of was published, a new Smithsonian Channel documentary from the traces the guide’s history and its ongoing significance.