List of Green Book places

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. "The Travelers' Green Book: 1960" New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections nypl.org

The Green Book, also known as The Negro Motorist Green Book, and later, The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, was a travel guide for African Americans, published from 1936 to 1966. The annual guide was designed to show businesses that did not discriminate against Black travelers. The book was named after its founder Victor Hugo Green.

Prior to The Green Book, African Americans relied on word-of-mouth and on newspapers such as The Richmond Planet and The Norfolk Journal and Guide for travel recommendations. Out-of-state newspapers included vacation sections with advertisements for places to visit in Virginia. Likewise, Virginia papers also advertised sites outside the commonwealth.

Today, according to Architectural Historian Jennifer Reut, an expert participant with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it is estimated that less than 20 percent of the sites listed in The Green Book are still extant. Fewer have been documented, maintained, or preserved. Communities and advocates across the country are working together to identify and collect the stories of the events and people that sustained the Green Book sites. Twenty individual listed properties in the National Register of Historic Places have been identified as being in the Green Book.

Joker's Barber Shop was adjacent to a house owned by Ellard and Mae Jackson. Mr. Ellard was a dentist, as was his father, J.A., who built the house. The Jacksons provided welcome refuge for Black students at the University of Virginia. The students ate home-cooked meals and watched television with the Jackson family on Saturday nights. Source: Miller, Ed; "The Underground Refuge," Virginia: The UVA Magazine, summer 2021, pg. 47.