The Negro Motorist Green Book Exhibition

This summer, the History Center is partnering with the Smithsonian to bring another world-class exhibition to Pittsburgh.

The Negro Motorist Green Book exhibition, presented in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) and award-winning author Candacy Taylor, will offer an immersive look at the reality of travel for African Americans in mid-century America and how the annual guide served as an indispensable resource for the nation’s rising Black middle class.

Started in 1936 by Harlem postman Victor Green, “The Negro Motorist Green Book” was a guide published over three decades that helped African Americans travel the country safely, and with dignity, during the time of segregation. The Green Book was published and distributed nationwide until 1967, providing African American travelers with information on restaurants, gas stations, department stores, and other businesses that welcomed Black travelers. In an era of Jim Crow laws and “sundown towns” – communities that explicitly prohibited African Americans from staying overnight – the Green Book offered critical, life-saving information and sanctuary.

The Negro Motorist Green Book exhibition will include artifacts from business signs and postcards to historic footage, archival images, and firsthand accounts to convey not only the apprehension felt by Black travelers, but also the resilience, innovation and elegance of people choosing to live a full American existence. It will bring focus to a vibrant parallel world of African American businesses, the rise of the Black leisure class in the United States and the important role the Green Book played in facilitating the second wave of the Great Migration.

The History Center’s exhibit will also explore the Pittsburgh connections and Western Pa. businesses highlighted within the guide.

The exhibition is on view from May 13 through Aug. 13, 2023.