Ramsey County History – Summer 2022: “Traveling Without Aggravation: How Victor H. Green Changed Travel for Black Americans: Green Book Locations in the Historic Rondo Community (1940-1956)” – Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums 2024 History Award Winner and 2024 Virginia B. Kunz Honorable Mention

Traveling Without Aggravation: How Victor H. Green Changed Travel for Black Americans:
Green Book Locations in the Historic Rondo Community (1940-1956)
Author: Nieeta L. Presley

Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums 2024 History Award Winner

2024 Virginia B. Kunz Honorable Mention

Traveling, especially with young families, is never easy. Scheduling, packing, locating gas stations, and securing reservations can be a challenge. Traveling for Black Americans during the Jim Crow era was especially difficult because many US businesses were far from welcoming. And so, residents in tight-knit African American communities were always aware when a prominent politician, famous musician, or even Aunt Betty from Louisville were passing through town. Their welcome mats were ready. Then, in 1936, Victor H. Green, a postal worker from Harlem, began publishing a reference book that invited subscribers to “travel without aggravation.” Known early on as The Negro Motorist Green Book, this invaluable resource provided listings for motels and travel homes, restaurants, service stations, and other establishments in nearly every state and a handful of countries. Between 1940 and 1956, nine businesses invited weary and wary travelers to St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood. The construction of Interstate 94 in the 1950s and ’60s demolished nearly all these locations, but author Nieeta Presley scoured city directories and old newspaper articles and advertisements to uncover the histories of several of these venues, including Wilson Villa, G. & G. Barbecue, and the popular Jim’s Place—for here, travelers were always welcome.
PDF of N. Presley article