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58 reviews for:
Driving The Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance
Alvin Hall
4.02 AVERAGE
58 reviews for:
Driving The Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance
Alvin Hall
4.02 AVERAGE
I read this book in a day. I just couldn't put it down. I first learned of the Green Book when I read One of the Good Ones a few years ago, and the whole concept stuck with me. When I saw this book was coming out, I added it to my To Be Read list.
I am so glad I picked this up. The stories are so moving, and Hall's comments about the why and how of the need and impact of this book is inspiring. A must-read!
I am so glad I picked this up. The stories are so moving, and Hall's comments about the why and how of the need and impact of this book is inspiring. A must-read!
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
i had never heard of the green book before this one and apparently missed the blockbuster 2018 movie of the same name that seemingly does little to spread information about the need of the green book.
this was an incredibly enlightening novel. learning about disparate treatment on the roadways 70 years ago that persist today was wild. in essence, the green book originated as a guidebook of safe and welcoming establishments in states and cities across the united states.
as i understand it, following the great migration, black families still (obviously) wanted to see one another and the increasing availability of cars aided this desire. however, discrimination on roads was ubiquitous. driving in too nice of a car brought suspicion, along with driving in too beat-up of a car. restaurants and hotels were segregated or outright refused to serve black customers, necessitating families cook “shoebox” lunches for their thousand mile journeys ahead of time to avoid being shunned away from all-white establishments.
in terms of acquiring petrol, black families could sometimes get gas, only to be refused access to the bathroom, if they were even permitted to get gas. roadtrips were not equal for all. (and don’t forget to consider the establishment of sundown towns, further complicating the whole aspect of traveling while black)
thus came the green book, which gave black motorists information about locations they would actually be welcomed. starting small in only new york city published in 1936, the green book expanded to include all 50 states and even some international destinations. having a guidebook of welcoming establishments made road trips for black families safer, but only to a limited extent because of the continuation of blatant racism fixed upon them (that somehow persists today still).
of course there is much more to be said, but this is probably a book better gleaned information from when the person telling you isn’t white.
this was an incredibly enlightening novel. learning about disparate treatment on the roadways 70 years ago that persist today was wild. in essence, the green book originated as a guidebook of safe and welcoming establishments in states and cities across the united states.
as i understand it, following the great migration, black families still (obviously) wanted to see one another and the increasing availability of cars aided this desire. however, discrimination on roads was ubiquitous. driving in too nice of a car brought suspicion, along with driving in too beat-up of a car. restaurants and hotels were segregated or outright refused to serve black customers, necessitating families cook “shoebox” lunches for their thousand mile journeys ahead of time to avoid being shunned away from all-white establishments.
in terms of acquiring petrol, black families could sometimes get gas, only to be refused access to the bathroom, if they were even permitted to get gas. roadtrips were not equal for all. (and don’t forget to consider the establishment of sundown towns, further complicating the whole aspect of traveling while black)
thus came the green book, which gave black motorists information about locations they would actually be welcomed. starting small in only new york city published in 1936, the green book expanded to include all 50 states and even some international destinations. having a guidebook of welcoming establishments made road trips for black families safer, but only to a limited extent because of the continuation of blatant racism fixed upon them (that somehow persists today still).
of course there is much more to be said, but this is probably a book better gleaned information from when the person telling you isn’t white.
challenging
informative
reflective
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
informative
sad
medium-paced
Although this details the struggles Black Americans faced simply trying to navigate the United States, it overlaps with a discussion about building personal wealth against the physical threat of white envy, rooted in the physical symbol of the car as an accessible, notable symbol of status (especially when home ownership was restricted due to covenants, redlining, violence, and other aspects of de facto segregation). Hall remarks that this fear about "driving while Black" continues into the modern day, with drivers fearing stopping in formerly- or current sundown towns (Vidor, TX is a notable one and former KKK hotspot that we used to skip on our way east on I-10) and falling victim to police brutality, as was the case for Philando Castile.
The audiobook did feel very academic at places where it needed to be more personal, like when Hall tried to share the stories of his co-drivers, both younger Black women, but they were largely there to supplement his own. Additionally, just like my critique of Angela Davis's reading in a previous review, the cadence Hall uses is too clipped. I don't understand why narrators don't read the full phrase of clause and instead pause after every few words. This doesn't produce greater quality because I have to piece each part of the sentence together manually instead of being able to parse the full phrase as a concrete idea. I think that's what made this otherwise short book much longer for me, and again, I have to balance the ease with which I was able to consume this in audio format with the likelihood that I wouldn't have been distracted by this in text format (but I also likely wouldn't have made it through).
The audiobook did feel very academic at places where it needed to be more personal, like when Hall tried to share the stories of his co-drivers, both younger Black women, but they were largely there to supplement his own. Additionally, just like my critique of Angela Davis's reading in a previous review, the cadence Hall uses is too clipped. I don't understand why narrators don't read the full phrase of clause and instead pause after every few words. This doesn't produce greater quality because I have to piece each part of the sentence together manually instead of being able to parse the full phrase as a concrete idea. I think that's what made this otherwise short book much longer for me, and again, I have to balance the ease with which I was able to consume this in audio format with the likelihood that I wouldn't have been distracted by this in text format (but I also likely wouldn't have made it through).
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Really appreciated this book and what it did, but in some ways I did feel like the title was misleading. This was less about the author and his colleagues actually driving the Green Book, and more about the forces that made the Green Book necessary and the history around it. Given that the author also did a radio program and a podcast which, upon looking at it, are more about his experiences and interviews while doing his road trips, that probably is a better reflection of what I thought this book would be; this instead is a good historical overview of the impacts of racism on how Black people were and are able to move around in the United States. A very good primer, maybe a next-step read for someone who now understood that racism exists and needs to see some more examples of how it has impacted the very shape of travel.