“In Patronizing These Places, Mention The Green Book": Visualizing the Social Production of Space in Twentieth-Century Black Travel

From 1936 - 1966 The Green Book published listings of accommodations safe from the dangers of discrimination and the Jim Crow South. The pocket-sized Green Book did not reiterate sites advertised in other popular guidebooks and roadmaps. Instead, it relied upon an interpersonal network of Black business owners and community members to share locations they owned or frequented. While The Green Book is often treated as a written work or historical artifact, its pages are not exclusively textual but accompanied by illustrated advertisements and photographs. The Green Book’s readers also reciprocated information by visually documenting their travel through photographic postcards Through an analysis of The Green Book’s illustrations and photographs, contemporary artwork inspired by the travel guide, and postcards from Green Book travel destinations, this thesis argues that The Green Book is more than a mere travel guide; it is a social production of space which is created through its counter-hegemonic network of Black travelers bound together by a greater yearning for mobility.