Sorin builds a convincing case that owning a car led to a heightened sense of national identity and the slow breakdown of racial segregation in public and private spaces - even as the world of Black motorists mostly remained apart from and unseen by the rest of Amer insightfully examines African Americans’ evolving relationship to the car throughout the 20th c. and into the present, homing in on the freedoms and dangers midcentury car ownership presented working- and middle-class Black families. Insightfully examines African Americans’ evolving relationship to the car throughout the 20th c. ©2020 Gretchen Sorin (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books. Enlivened by Sorin’s personal history, 'DRIVING WHILE BLACK' opens an entirely new view onto the African American experience, and shows why travel was so central to the Civil Rights movement. At the heart of this story is Victor and Alma Green’s famous Green Book, begun in 1936, which made possible that most basic American right, the family vacation, and encouraged a new method of resisting oppression. #DRIVING WHILE BLACK BOOK DRIVERS#Gretchen Sorin recovers a forgotten history of black motorists, and recounts their creation of a parallel, unseen world of travel guides, black only hotels, and informal communications networks- a cross between Yelp and samizdat-that kept black drivers safe. Yet cars have always held distinct importance for African Americans, allowing black families to evade the many dangers presented by an entrenched racist society and to enjoy, in some measure, the freedom of the open road. Yet cars have always held distinct importance for African Americans, allowing black families to evade the many dangers presented by an entrenched racist society and to enjoy, in some measure, the freedom of th The ultimate symbol of independence and possibility, the automobile has shaped this country from the moment the fi rst Model T rolled off Henry Ford’s assembly line. Gretchen Sorin is Distinguished Professor and Director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program of the State University of New York.The ultimate symbol of independence and possibility, the automobile has shaped this country from the moment the fi rst Model T rolled off Henry Ford’s assembly line. In grassroots fashion (most famously with the “Green Book” guidebooks), a new industry sprang up, a world of black-only B&B’s, hotels, and restaurants that played a vital role in the civil rights movement by feeding and housing activists who traveled South to protest. Long car rides and vacations required careful preparation, early morning departures, and infrequent pit stops. For the average black American, restriction of movement-a holdover from slavery-lingered long into the 20th century and shaped the way African Americans navigated behind the wheel. The liberating nature of automobiles has long been romanticized in song, film, and literature, but that narrative has largely been owned by white Americans. #DRIVING WHILE BLACK BOOK REGISTRATION#This event is free but registration is required. Please join us on Thursday, August 6, at 5 p.m., for a 2020 Virtual History Book Festival “Spirited Discussion” with Gretchen Sorin, author of Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights (Liveright, 2020). Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights(Liveright, 2020)
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