17 Green Book Web Inside 1140x450 2The North Carolina African American Heritage Commission, a division of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, has created a new traveling exhibit about sites important to, and personal memories about, American travel during the “Jim Crow” era of legal segregation. The Navigating Jim Crow: The Green Book and Oasis Spaces in North Carolina traveling exhibit will be at the Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex though July 9.

“The Negro Motorist Green Book,” published between 1936 and 1966, was both a guide and a tool of resistance designed to confront the realities of racial discrimination in the United States and beyond. The book listed over 300 North Carolina businesses — from restaurants and hotels, to tourist homes, nightclubs and beauty salons — in the three decades that is was published.

The exhibit highlights a complex statewide network of business owners and Green Book sites that allowed African American communities to thrive, and that created “oasis spaces” for a variety of African American travelers.

Eight vibrant panels form the traveling exhibit, showcasing images of business owners, travelers and historic and present-day images of North Carolina Green Book sites.

The words of African American travelers and descendants of Green Book site owners are featured prominently in the exhibit. Each of these stories are from oral histories collected by the AAHC in 2018 and 2019.

This exhibit was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and there is no fee to see this exhibit. Two versions will tour the state’s African American cultural centers, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, history museums, historic sites and libraries. For more tour dates and locations, visit https://aahc.nc.gov/green-book-project. For additional information about the exhibit, call 919-814-6516.

The Museum of the Cape Fear is located on the corner of Bradford and Arsenal avenues in Fayetteville, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 1-5 p.m. The museum operates under the Division of State History Museums, Office of Archives and History, within the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.