Road less traveled: race and American automobility

Michael W. Pesses

Mobilities, 2017, vol. 12, issue 5, 677-691

Abstract: The Negro Motorist Green Books were published by Victor H. Green & Company between 1936 and 1967. The books were references for black motorists on road trips to help them avoid dangerous towns, racist establishments, and the effects of a segregated America. This paper explores these books and situates them within the greater context of the American road. My argument is that they represent an entry for black motorists into the modern American automobility discourse. I also suggest that the ambivalent and even humorous tone used by these Green Books represents an attempt at coping with modernity while still living under backwards conditions. Finally, I briefly introduce a challenge to the claim that the Civil Rights Movement was the sole impetus for the end of needing such books. To accomplish this, I frame this automobility using a Foucauldian approach of genealogy and power/knowledge relationships.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2016.1240319

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