(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Walk into the 4,000-square-foot space inside the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, and you'll take a journey with the Green Book during the Jim Crow South.
"The Green Book is a traveler's guide for Black Americans, basically, to travel safely across the country, whether they were going north, west or south — but also, as they say in the Green Book itself, without embarrassment and with dignity," said Arielle Weininger, the Illinois Holocaust Museum’s Chief Curator of Collections and Exhibitions.
Weininger said the majority of the businesses, hotels, restaurants, hair salons, bars, and clubs included in the Green Book were Black-owned.
“It also supports Black American citizens in their business entrepreneurship.” she said. “If you think about it, there was no internet at the time. There were maps, but no one is telling you whether this service station is going to serve you or not, so having this guide was really essential for Black Americans to travel safely.”
The traveling exhibit features photos, artifacts and personal stories of people and places during segregation.
In Chicago, the Green Book mostly directed travelers to listings located in the South Side community of Bronzeville, which was built by the Black migrants who transformed the Chicago area during the Great Migration. Of the over 180 businesses listed in Chicago, nearly 80% were in the Bronzeville District, an area that was considered a mecca for Black manufacturing, hair care, publishing, and banking industries.
"Chicago features very prominently here,” Weininger said. “In 1949, there was a multi-page article, especially about Chicago, the museums you could go to, the hotels you could stay at and the larger tourist spots you could go to."
The exhibit features over 70 original objects from some of the restaurants, hotels, and various sites listed in the Green Book. Among them: The original Sutherland Hotel sign, which sits at the exhibit’s entrance and once sat above the famous Kenwood lounge that hosted jazz greats and civil rights meetings.
"There is something very special about this exhibit … Yes, of course, we are dealing with this difficult history of Jim Crow, and segregation and racism, but it is met by the Black community with joy and excitement of getting on the road, and taking a vacation, and going to the beach — and you see that through all the photographs in this exhibit," Weininger said.
There also is an interactive feature that allows patrons to take a trip from Chicago to places in the South. Guests can choose places that are named in the Green Book, or other local stops, and they can see firsthand accounts of how Black Americans were treated at many places during that time.
Published annually by Victor Hugo Green, who was born in 1892 and died in 1960, “The Green Book” was a vital handbook for decades.
“The Negro Motorist Green Book,” an exhibition developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, will be at the Illinois Holocaust Museum through April 23.
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