Historian Frank Nickell looks at history of 'Green Book,' Cape Girardeau connections

In 1936, Victor Green published a guide book for African-American travelers in a segregated United States. Titled “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” or simply “The Green Book,” it contained information on where African-American families could find a place to eat, buy gasoline, stay overnight, without being harassed.

Regional historian Frank Nickell spoke Tuesday night at Heritage Hall, 102 N. Main St. in Cape Girardeau, about “The Green Book” and its Cape Girardeau entries.

Thanks to the book, Nickell said, travelers “could avoid confrontation and have a safe vacation.”

After World War II, Nickell said, transportation had changed. Roads were easier to navigate, cars could travel longer distances.

That made vacationing easier.

But, Nickell said, “sundown towns” required African-Americans to be gone by sundown.

In a country that continually touted freedom, Nickell said, the existence of these towns was “very restrictive.”

Anna, Illinois, was one such town, as were numerous communities in Missouri, including Chaffee, Dexter and Bell City, Nickell said.

“The Green Book” was one way travelers could communicate to each other, Nickell said.

Houses listed in the book became safe havens, Nickell said, calling them “points of freedom” along the highways.

Cape Girardeau had three such houses: a home owned by the Williams family at 408 S. Frederick St., the Randol family at 422 North St., and Cape Girardeau resident Louise Duncan’s family’s home, at 38 N. Hanover St., Duncan said.

At the lecture Tuesday, Duncan said her great-aunt and great-uncle built the house in the early 1900s, and she remembers the house from her childhood as being “always full of people.”

She and Nickell became friends about 30 years ago, she said, and as she learned more about the house’s history, she realized the house was famous.

“We may be the only [“Green Book”] house in the country that our family built the house and family still lives in,” Duncan said.

Nickell called the house “a rare survivor,” noting that many of the structures listed in the book have been demolished.

As for original copies of the book, Nickell said they’re very valuable, but reproductions can be bought online for less than $10, or the text can be accessed at the Library of Congress’ website.

“This was something going on that most white Americans never knew about,” Nickell said.

Duncan said she remembered African-American entertainers including Duke Ellington playing at clubs in Cape Girardeau, and staying at one or the other of the “Green Book” houses, since they weren’t welcome at the hotel during segregation.

Nickell said he’d chosen the lecture’s date to coincide with the Academy Awards just in case the film “Green Book” took home the best picture Oscar.

And it did, but the film’s recognition isn’t without controversy.

As reported by The Associated Press, backlash to the film, about the erudite jazz pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali, who won best supporting actor) and the Bronx-native bouncer-turned-chauffer Tony “Lip” Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen), goes deep.

Though the film’s fans see in director Peter Farrelly’s film an often funny, feel-good odd-couple tale, critics of “Green Book” see a movie that trades on racial stereotypes and crassly capitalizes on the “Green Book” with little interest in dramatizing its important history.

The film also had its supporters, the AP reported, but, Nickell said, ultimately, the movie glossed over the civil rights issues in the 1960s — issues “The Green Book” attempted to address.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630