The Color of Safety

By: The Local Palate

Copy to clipboard

Calvin Alexander Ramsey chronicles the history of the Green Book

CALVIN ALEXANDER RAMSEY Brandon Stanton Humans of New York seated

Calvin Alexander Ramsey had never heard of the Green Book growing up. But in 2001, Ramsey, an author and playwright, was attending a funeral in Atlanta when an elderly man approached him to ask where he could get a Green Book, a long out-of-print travel guide for “Negro motorists” in the Jim Crow era. The man was from New York City and thought he still needed one to get around in the Deep South. That stuck with Ramsey, so he started researching the book’s history and interviewed older African Americans who were familiar with it. It was started in 1936 by a mailman from Harlem named Victor Hugo Green and ran almost every year until 1966. Green founded the guide full of friendly stops, much like a guide from the AAA (which African Americans were not permitted to join), “to give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassments and to make his trip more enjoyable.” From his research, Ramsey wrote a celebrated two-act play, The Green Book. That led him to publish a children’s book, Ruth and the Green Book, which was turned into a puppet show, and now Ramsey goes to schools to speak to children about the effects of discrimination. Together with animation professor Becky Wible Searles of Savannah College of Art and Design, Ramsey is also producing a film, The Green Book Chronicles, a live-action documentary featuring animation and mixed-media slated for release in the next few months.