I think about my father and my grandfather because they swore by the Green Book.

Every day after Christmas, my mother would bundle all us up and we would hit the road for New York to see our Uncle Jerome.

So daddy had his Green Book, his little Pocket Bible.

We didn't find out until later years that it was because of segregation

and because of fear that the book existed.

I'm Alvin Hall, broadcaster, author, and teacher. I enjoy finding and

telling stories that people may have forgotten but whose ramifications are in

plain sight. Every day there are new stories about the dangers

of being black in America while driving, jogging, voting, simply living.

Imagine how magnified those risks were during the decades of legal segregation in this country.

The Negro Motorist Green Book, or more simply the Green Book,

was created in 1937 to help black Americans travel safely on the highways

and roadways of this country, or as more subtly stated in the guide to travel without aggravation.

Anytime we drove anywhere, we were always afraid.

We never knew when somebody might stop us or pass by and shoot us. You were just

always afraid. From McMillan Podcasts, this is Driving the Green Book.

Join activist Janay Woods Weber and me as we travel from Detroit to New Orleans,

covering 2021 miles in 12 days, and stopping at Green Book locations

along the way.

We talked to people who lived through the era that made the guide necessary, who recount unnerving experiences on highways and hometown

streets, who share memories of their families and neighborhoods, as well as the safe havens

listed in the Green Book.

...