Driving the Green Book
Alvin Hall and Janée Woods Weber
In the summer of 2019, award-winning broadcaster and educator Alvin Hall and activist Janée Woods Weber hit the road for a trip from Detroit to New Orleans. The route they drove was based on information from the historic travel guide, The Negro Motorist Green Book. During segregation and Jim Crow, African American travelers all over the country relied on this book as a vital resource to quell fears, find safe havens, and travel with dignity. Wherever Alvin and Janée went, they asked about The Green Book. The stories from this trip turned into the Driving the Green Book podcast.
The route Alvin and Janée drove was based on information from The Green Book. They knew that thousands of African Americans would have made a similar trip when returning South to visit family during and after the Great Migration—a period when many Black Americans moved north and west for better jobs, better lives, and better futures. In each city they collected powerful, personal testimony from locals: former Motown musicians, activists, politicians, professors, historians, artists, and more.
