SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2010
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From Page One A21 Segregation-era book a new light on a new Shaw green book from A1
ish travelers which hotels and restaurants were restricted, cov- ered places fromMexico toMon- treal, identifying restaurants, service stations, hotels, “tourist homes,” taverns, liquor stores, beauty parlors, nightclubs, drug- stores and tailors that catered to blacks who’d grown weary of wandering into “whites-only” es- tablishments. During segregation, it wasn’t
uncommon for African Ameri- can travelers to packmeals, blan- kets and even containers of gaso- line in their cars for long trips. “We didn’t want to stop any- where and get into a situation wherewe didn’t knowhowitwas going to turn out,” says Ramsey, who is 60. “This is an unknown chapter
in American history,” says Bon- nie Nelson Schwartz, the theater producerwho put Ramsey’s proj- ect together for the Lincoln. “Most people haven’t heard of the Green Book. I certainly knew nothing about it.” This week’s reading at the
Lincoln, a repolished jewel of Black Broadway in the center of the old city within a city, will feature civil rights leader Julian Bond — whose father used the Green Book during his travels — in a small role as Harlem postal worker Victor H. Green, the book’s publisher. “It’s coming full circle,” says
Ramsey. The play tells the story of an African American tourist home in Jefferson City, Mo., where a Jewish Holocaust survi- vor spends the nightwith a black family after walking out of a hotel that had a “whites only” sign.
A rich D.C. past But the drama could just as
easily have been set in Washing- ton, in the Lincoln’s neighbor- hood of Shaw, which was the city’s hub of black urban life — before riots, the greatGreen Line tear-up and gentrification did a number onUStreet, once known as the Black Broadway. The 1949 edition of the Green
Book vouched for Aunt Brenda’s PitBarbecue inAlbuquerque and suggested that African American travelers looking for a friendly barber in Tulsa might stop by Swindall’s. The District had more listings than many entire states—more than 60 addresses, many of them on or around U Street and Florida Avenue, in- cluding three restaurants and a tavern on the same block as the theater. They’re all long gone:An office
building now covers two of the old addresses (goodbye, Earl’s and Capitol), and a third (Chick- en Paradise, at 1210 U) seems to have simply disappeared. The other restaurant, the Casbah, is now Ben’s Next Door, on the other side of Ben’s Chili Bowl fromthe Lincoln. Many D.C. addresses listed in
the ’49 Green Book are boarded up. Several buildings have been replaced by parking lots, softball fields or office complexes, as with the beauty parlor, Apex, which was on U Street where the city’s massive Frank D. Reeves Municipal Center now sits. Har- rison’s, a tavern on Florida Ave- nue, is now a transitional house for homeless men. Service sta- tions became custard shops and hipster clothing stores. The old barbershop at 1803 Florida is now a printing shop. “This was a poorish neighbor-
hood where people went about their daily lives, and now it’s hip and groovy with pubs and spas and gyms,” says Wendy Melech- en, who has owned The Printer
NIKKI KAHN/THE WASHINGTON POST
John Chester of Baltimore eats dinner with his girlfriend, Sukari Smith of the District, at Ben’sNext Door, located at 1211USt.NW.Near their table is a photo of the Casbah, a restaurant that used to be in that space during segregation. The Casbah was amongD.C. locations that welcomed African Americans during that time.
Here are the locations of some of the businesses listed in the 1949 edition of Te Negro Motorist Green Book, a travel guide for African Americans road-tripping in an era of racial segregation.
Adams Morgan
Meridian Hill Park
V ST. W ST.
U ST. U ST. T ST. S ST. 0 MILE
“Green Book” approved site, circa 1949
1/4 NW
Detail D.C.
SW NICK KIRKPATRICK FOR THE WASHINGTON POST Years ago, the jazz club Bohemian Caverns operated as the much smaller Club Caverns.
since 1986. “But I’ve seen less racial change than a change in age and socioeconomics.” Lonnie G. Bunch III, director
of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, says her family used the Green Book on a trip from New Jersey to Minne- apolis. “In someways,what theGreen
Book reminds us is how central Washington, D.C., is to the Afri- can American experience,” she says. She adds that Shaw’s econom-
ic and racial transformation — which started with the end of legal segregation,was delayed by the 1968 riots and picked up speed over the past couple of decades — is a “natural evolu-
“In some ways, what the Green Book reminds us is how central Washington, D.C., is to the African American experience.”
—Lonnie G. Bunch III, National Museum of African American History and Culture
tion” but that it has also “meant the demise of many of these African American establish- ments. In someways, the rush for African Americans to be Ameri- cansmeant leaving some of these businesses behind so you could now go into the white store. Much is gained with integration, but something is also lost.” The dilapidated building at
1901 14th St. NW, which used to house Club Bali, now has an Arena Stage sign on it — as well as a piece of graffiti art depicting a man in a T-shirt that says “I (heart) Gentrification.”
Historic, still Not everything has changed,
though. The landmark U Street jazz club, Bohemian Caverns,
which operated as the much smaller Club Caverns in the early Green Book days, has resumed booking live music after a long period of dormancy. And at Ninth and P streets,
S&W Liquors has been selling booze under the same name since the Jim Crow era. Not that anybody has offered owner Andy Kima key to the city. “This liquor store is a historic
store?” he says incredulously one morning as a steady stream of customers came in to buy ciga- rettes, beer, Gatorade and hard liquor through a bulletproof glasswindowthe previous owner installed. Kim has owned the liquor
store since the early 1980s. “I bought it froma Jewishman,” he says, laughing because he has been asked if the neighborhood has changed since he arrived. “I would say this area was 98 percent black people.Nowall the white people come in.” Themore things change, the more they
NE SE
R ST. Q ST.
Shaw
29
McMillan Reservoir
Howard University
1 P ST. SOURCE: 1949 Green Book GENE THORP AND MARY KATE CANNISTRA/THE WASHINGTON POST
remain the same: People still buy their booze. He asks to see the old Green
Book listings and then asks ques- tions about the book. Says the Smithsonian’s Bunch:
“The lack of knowledge about the Green Book also tells us about the lack of knowledge many Americans have of how segrega- tion really worked — how it had impacts dramatic and impacts small. But all the impacts hurt. The more people understand that through theGreen Book, the more they’ll understand what has changed.”
dulacj@washpost.com
on
washingtonpost.com A new chapter
IFor a tour of some of the businesses that have
moved onto U Street NW since the end of legal segregation and after gentrification, visit
PostLocal.com.
NIKKI KAHN/THE WASHINGTON POST WhentheNegroMotorist Green Book was published, more than 60D.C. locations friendly to blacks were pointed out, many of them on or aroundUStreet and FloridaAvenue.
FLORIDA AVE.
FLORIDA AVE.
FLA. AVE.
RHODE ISLAND AVE.
FLA. AVE.
NEW JERSEY AVE.
4TH ST.
GEORGIA AVE. SHERMAN AVE.
NEW HAMPSHIRE AVE.
7TH ST. 6TH ST.
9TH ST. 12TH ST. 13TH ST. 14TH ST.
15TH ST. 16TH ST.
17TH ST.
18TH ST. 19TH ST.
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