Smithsonian Affiliations and Museum of the African Diaspora present

‍The Legacy of The Green Book

‍In 1936, Victor Hugo Green, a Harlem postman, began publishing a guide for African American travelers to offer travel options during America’s Jim Crow era. The Green Book, as it was known, was a sustained success—for almost thirty years -- providing Black travelers information on hotels, restaurants, service stations, and other facilities where they could expect welcome “without humiliation.

”Join Smithsonian Affiliations, the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, and author, photographer, and cultural documentarian Candacy Taylor to explore the legacy of the Green Book, its impact on communities, businesses, and families, and its relevance today.

Register for this program here

‍Moderated by Marquette Folley, Content Director, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service

Marquette Folley is a social and cultural historian and exhibition developer and project manager. She came to the Smithsonian Institution in 1983 as a fellow to work on the National Museum of American History exhibition Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration, 1915-1940.  Later, Folley joined the museum’s curatorial staff in the musical history division and worked to increase and broaden its jazz holdings. Currently, Folley is content director at the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES).

At SITES, she was co-curator and co-creator of the exhibition and book titled, Seeing Jazz, and exhibition developer and project director for the traveling exhibitions The Negro Motorist Green Book, Men of Change: Power, Triumph. Truth., 100 Faces of War, and Robert Blackburn & Modern American Printmaking.

‍Her past works include Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey, Women, Art, and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise, American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print, William H. Johnson: An American Modern;  Black Wings: American Dreams of Flight, 381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott; and Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy.

‍Candacy Taylor

Candacy Taylor is an award-winning author, photographer, and cultural documentarian working on a multidisciplinary project based on The Negro Motorist Green Book.  Taylor is the author of Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America (Abrams Books, 2020).  She is the curator and content specialist of the exhibition The Negro Motorist Green Book, organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.

Since 2013, Taylor has crisscrossed America five times scouting and photographing Green Book sites. Taylor’s work has been featured in over 50 media outlets including The Atlantic, CBS Sunday Morning, The Guardian (UK edition), The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Newsweek, PBS Newshour, and The Wall Street Journal.

Taylor was a fellow at the Hutchins Center at Harvard University under the direction of Henry Louis Gates Jr. and her projects have been commissioned and funded by numerous organizations including the Library of Congress, National Geographic, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Park Service, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Taylor lives in Harlem, New York.

Learn more about The Green Book

‍The Negro Motorist Green Book exhibition

‍Smithsonian Channel videos on the Green Book

‍Smithsonian Magazine articles about the Green Book:

‍How the Green Book Helped African-Americans Navigate a Segregated Nation

‍The True Story of the 'Green Book' Movie

Image credits:

Green Book Cover: 1959: Courtesy Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, New York Public Library.

Family in front of a car: Outdoor Photo of a Mother, Father and Child Standing by a Car / Rev. Henry Clay Anderson, 1940. © NMAAHC

Victor Hugo Green: Victor Hugo Green in 1956. New York Public Library - Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Digital Collection