Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Thursday 21 February 2019

Travelers can retrace ‘Green Book’ path with some research

By RUSSELL CONTRERAS The Threatt family’s recent
JAY REEVES partnership with historians
Associated Press to preserve the former sta-
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) tion and the movie “Green
— The Oscar-nominated Book” have brought about
interracial road trip movie a renaissance of sorts for
“Green Book” has spurred the structure,
interest in the real guide- The Oklahoman reported in
book that helped black December.
travelers navigate segre- Charles Becknell, Sr., 77, of
gated America. With a little Rio Rancho, New Mexico,
research, travelers can find said he bought a 1954 edi-
copies of “The Negro Mo- tion of the Green Book on-
torist Green Book” online line after he saw the movie.
and retrace the route in The retired educator plans
the movie or develop their on visiting some of the sites
own tours of sites that once mentioned in the book to
provided refuge to African- see what’s there now. “I
Americans. also wanted my grandchild
The Peter Farrelly film fol- to see this book for them-
lows an Italian-American selves,” Becknell said.
bouncer, played by Viggo To be sure, some of the sites
Mortensen, as he drives a mentioned in the Green
prominent black classical Book no longer exist and
pianist, played by Maher- the buildings that once
shala Ali, during a 1962 mu- housed them have been
sic tour through Jim Crow- replaced or torn down.
era America. This Feb. 12, 2019 photo shows the exterior of the old Ben Moore Hotel, once mentioned in the Frank’s Restaurant in New
To avoid conflict and “Green Book” for black travelers, in Montgomery, Alabama. York City’s Harlem neigh-
to protect the pianist, Associated Press borhood, advertised in the
Mortensen’s character uses at the New York Public Li- once black-owned A.G. Charles G. Wallace, along 1959 Green Book edition, is
the Green Book — a guide brary Digital Collections or Gaston Motel is now part of the historic Route 66 is still long gone and a new de-
published from 1936 to 1966 purchase replicas from the a national monument es- standing, barely. It offered funct discount store occu-
by Harlem postal worker Camarillo, California-based tablished by then-President black motorists opportuni- pies the spot.
Victor H. Green. About Comics publisher. Barack Obama. The Rev. ties for a good night’s rest The former Booker Wash-
The Green Book offered Inside, readers will find list- Martin Luther King Jr. and and a chance to catch a ing Hotel and Courts in
black travelers tips on plac- ings in almost every state aides stayed at the motel nearby show of American San Francisco, which
es to eat, visit and sleep with addresses of places while planning demonstra- Indian and Mexican-Amer- once offered black travel-
while on the road. The tav- that catered to African tions against legalized ra- ican doo-wop singers. The ers “splendidly decorated
erns, hotels and gas stations American travelers amid of cial segregation in the city motel was listed in some suites” and a “cocktail
were often black-owned world of “Whites Only” res- in 1963. editions of the Green Book lounge,” is now a Safeway
and were identified via taurants, hotels and other Now abandoned and and is undergoing renova- grocery store and apart-
word-of-mouth or through establishments across the owned by the city, the mo- tion after years of being ments.
advertisements. United States. tel once was an upscale abandoned. The movie “Green Book”
“Carry your Green Book Some of the places fea- haven with a restaurant The Threatt Filling Station in is nominated for best pic-
with you,” the book warned tured in the travel guide still and live music for blacks Luther, Oklahoma, is on the ture at the 91st Academy
readers on its cover. “You exist, at least as shadows of seeking safety in a place National Register of Historic Awards scheduled to air
may need it!” their former selves. known as the most seg- Places for its distinction as a Sunday on ABC. Mortensen
Today, curious travelers can In Birmingham, Alabama, regated city in America. black-owned filling station is nominated for the best
find copies of every edition the city of the final perfor- It eventually will be refur- along the Route 66 “Moth- actor award and Ali as
of the Green Book for free mance in the movie, the bished as part of plans that er Road.” best-supporting actor.q
call for it to become a cen-
terpiece of the Birmingham
Civil Rights National Monu-
ment.
About 90 miles to the south,
in Montgomery, King often
got his hair cut in a barber
shop inside the Ben Moore
Hotel, which was a Green
Book fixture at the time King
was pastoring a church in
Alabama’s capital in the
1950s. The hotel still stands
on a corner, vacant and
decaying.
Meanwhile, in Albuquer-
que, New Mexico, the De In this June 24, 2016, file photo, the closed De Anza Motor Lodge
In this Dec. 3, 2018, file photo, Rev. Allen Threatt III, left, and his Anza Motor Lodge, a busi- sits along Route 66 in Albuquerque, N.M., and recently has been
cousin Edward Threatt stand outside the historic Threatt Filling ness owned by Zuni trader highlighted as one of the few places that allowed black travel-
Station on U.S. 66 in Luther, Okla. and Indian art collector ers to stay during segregated times.
Associated Press Associated Press