Driving while black : African American travel and the road to civil rights

Resource Information

The work Driving while black : African American travel and the road to civil rights represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in DC Public Library System. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Driving while black : African American travel and the road to civil rights

Title remainder

African American travel and the road to civil rights

Statement of responsibility

Gretchen Sorin

Creator

• Sorin, Gretchen Sullivan

Author

• Sorin, Gretchen Sullivan

Subject

• African Americans -- Social conditions -- 20th century
• African Americans -- Travel | History -- 20th century
• Automobile travel -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• African American automobile drivers -- History -- 20th century
• Segregation in transportation -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• United States -- Race relations | History -- 20th century
• Civil rights -- United States -- History -- 20th century
• African Americans -- Segregation | History -- 20th century

Language

eng

Summary

"How the automobile fundamentally changed African American life-the true history beyond the Best Picture-winning movie. The ultimate symbol of independence and possibility, the automobile has shaped this country from the moment the first Model T rolled off Henry Ford's assembly line. Yet cars have always held distinct importance for African Americans, allowing black families to evade the many dangers presented by an entrenched racist society and to enjoy, in some measure, the freedom of the open road. Gretchen Sorin recovers a forgotten history of black motorists, and recounts their creation of a parallel, unseen world of travel guides, black only hotels, and informal communications networks that kept black drivers safe. At the heart of this story is Victor and Alma Green's famous Green Book, begun in 1936, which made possible that most basic American right, the family vacation, and encouraged a new method of resisting oppression. Enlivened by Sorin's personal history, Driving While Black opens an entirely new view onto the African American experience, and shows why travel was so central to the Civil Rights movement"--

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Cataloging source

LBSOR/DLC

Dewey number

323.1196/073

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

LC call number

E185.61

LC item number

.S667 2020

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography