Far From Sanctuary: African American Travel in Twentieth-Century America

• In Event: Race and the Limits of Leisure: Black Travel and Tourism in the Age of Jim Crow

Abstract

American pleasures such as, taking to the road, exploring the country, enjoying the freedom and the autonomy of driving one’s own car, were almost entirely unavailable to African American motorists. Black drivers carried with them stories of trouble, violence, humiliation, and indignities that occurred regularly on the road. The road was, in fact, an anti-democratic, traumatic space where black travelers were subjected to near-constant anxiety and to innumerable losses, especially the painful loss of dignity and the loss of the most basic citizenship rights. African Americans were largely left out of the car culture that flowered in the mid-twentieth century.
Even black travelers with the financial resources to own a car had enormous difficulty finding lodging, restaurants, or gas stations that would serve them. The act of driving through unfamiliar territory made the restrictions of a racist society more visible, more tangible, and more inescapable. The “open road,” as it was fondly called, offered excitement, great adventure, and the space for family bonding and memory making. It represented a utopian fantasy of freedom and autonomy. But it was anything but “open” or utopian to those who it constrained, belittled, and rejected.
The critical question that this paper asks is: how does the social and cultural history of the automobile change if we examine it through the eyes of black motorists? At times, the car held similar meanings for black and white drivers as both groups desired recognition and treatment as “consumer citizens” in the burgeoning post-World War II economy. I explore black travel patterns by focusing on a varied set of sources including: the Negro Motorist Guide, a travel guide that directed African Americans to safe and welcoming “tourist homes,” hotels, restaurants, and gas stations; and the transcripts from court cases brought to the NAACP by black travelers who had been denied service at public accommodations across the country. My goal is to explore the interior, psychological, and emotional worlds of African American travelers.

Author

• Allyson Hobbs, Assistant Professor of American History, Stanford University