12/8/2022 0 Comments Driving while black book![]() ![]() From coast to coast, mom and pop guest houses and tourist homes, beauty parlors, and even large hotels-including New York’s Hotel Theresa, the Hampton House in Miami, or the Dunbar Hotel in Los Angeles-as well as night clubs and restaurants like New Orleans’ Dooky Chase and Atlanta’s Paschal’s, fed travelers and provided places to stay the night. She recounts the creation of a parallel, unseen world of black motorists, who relied on travel guides, black only businesses, and informal communications networks to keep them safe. In Driving While Black, the acclaimed historian Gretchen Sorin reveals how the car-the ultimate symbol of independence and possibility-has always held particular importance for African Americans, allowing black families to evade the many dangers presented by an entrenched racist society and to enjoy, in some measure, the freedom of the open road. Yet it became more difficult to shackle someone who was cruising along a highway at 45 miles per hour. Restrictions on movement before Emancipation carried over, in different forms, into Reconstruction and beyond for most of the 20th century, many white Americans felt blithely comfortable denying their black countrymen the right to travel freely on trains and buses. #Driving while black book free#Before the Civil War, masters confined their slaves to their property, while free black people found themselves regularly stopped, questioned, and even kidnapped. Restrictions on movement before Emancipation carried over, in different forms, into Reconstruction and beyond It’s hardly a secret that mobility has always been limited, if not impossible, for African Americans. ![]() Sorin personalizes a misplaced history by merging original archival research with her own family’s story, revealing how the automobile, along with Black travel guides like the famous Green Book inspired a novel method of battling oppression (“Gretchen Sorin '75”).It’s hardly a secret that mobility has always been limited, if not impossible, for African Americans. The car has always served as a means to allow Black families to escape the hazards ever-present in the engrained racist culture of America and to appreciate, to a certain degree, the autonomy of the open road. She believes Driving While Black is a contribution toward that end, hoping that “This book in some small way helps to shine a light on the origins of restricted mobility for Black Americans and their relationship with law enforcement and serves as a call to action that will help to end racial profiling” (“Gretchen Sorin '75”).ĭriving While Black reveals to the reader that the automobile, a definitive mark of freedom and opportunity, possesses unique importance for African Americans. ![]() Sorin states, “Looking back often provides a way to move forward” (xviii). ![]() Sorin’s 2020 book, Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights, earned her a place as a finalist for a 2021 NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Literary Work in Non-Fiction. She has curated exhibits with the Smithsonian, the Jewish Museum, and the New York State Historical Association. Gretchen Sorin is a Distinguished Service Professor of the State University of New York (SUNY) and director of SUNY Oneonta’s Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies. ![]()
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