“The Negro Motorist Green Book” was considered the "Bible of Black Travel," a guide that clued African Americans into safe roadside stops during Jim Crow. “The Green Book” listed more than 220 sites in Los Angeles alone, from restaurants and hotels to taverns and chicken shacks. Cultural documentarian Candacy Taylor is on a mission to document them all, from coast to coast, including one still standing in South LA. Although she went to over 5,000 Green Book sites, she hasn't visit all of them. Earlier this year, Taylor published a new book that encompasses her research, “Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America.”
In “Overground Railroad,” Candacy Taylor researches “The Green Book” and history of African American travel during the Jim Crow era. Photo courtesy of Abrams