Opening the Road: Victor Hugo Green and His Green Book

During a time when taking a trip across the nation could be dangerous for Black Americans, one man crafted a guide that changed the lives of millions.

In the late 1930s when segregation was legal and Black Americans couldn't visit every establishment or travel everywhere they wanted to safely, a New Yorker named Victor Hugo Green decided to do something about it. Green wrote and published a guide that listed places where his fellow Black Americans could be safe in New York City. The guide sold like hot cakes! Soon customers started asking Green to make a guide to help them travel and vacation safely across the nation too. With the help of his mail carrier co-workers and the African American business community, Green's guide allowed millions of African Americans to travel safely and enjoy traveling across the nation.

In the first picture book about the creation and distribution of The Green Book, author Keila Dawson and illustrator Alleanna Harris tell the story of the man behind it and how this travel guide opened the road for a safer, more equitable America.

A former elementary school teacher, Keila Dawson is an author and editor of children's books, including No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History and The King Cake Baby. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she writes for the Reading for Research Month (ReFoReMo) blog and reviews books for Multicultural Children's Book Day.

Alleanna Harris is a New Jersey-based children's book illustrator. She has previously illustrated several picture books, including Making Their Voices Heard: The Inspiring Friendship of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe, Patricia's Vision: The Doctor Who Saved Sight, and The Journey of York: The Unsung Hero of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.