By Olivia Chow, age 12, and IndyKids staff
Route 66. Ring any bells? If it does, it’s probably due to its history as one of the most important highways in U.S. history. But you may not know that the road is also part of some of the worst civil rights issues in history. Even though slavery had ended decades earlier, “Segregation existed formally or informally in all the states along the historic highway and affected ethnic or racialized groups in different ways,” reports the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In the South, Jim Crow laws ensured that white and Black people were always separated, and their facilities and stations were separated, as well. For example, Black and white people could not be served in the same room, could not use the same phones, or even enter their tickets for trains in the same booth.
This caused problems for Black travelers crossing the country via Route 66, which was built in the 1920s. Essentially, they had no choice but to take Route 66, as it was the only way to get to many places. They struggled with finding rest stops along the highway. They faced a lot of racist and discriminatory storefronts and hotels that wouldn’t let them in. In “Sundown towns” — some 44 of 89 of the towns on Route 66, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation — Black people had to leave by sundown or face the threat of violence or even death at the hands of white residents. Many white people in these towns saw Black people as more dangerous — even though they were the ones being violent.
Fortunately, their savior came in the form of a book, known as The Green Book, originally published in 1936 by Victor H. Green. This book may not sound important, but for the Black people traveling along Route 66, it basically saved their lives. As Candacy Taylor, a cultural documentarian working on a project on the topic, told The Washington Post, “It was life or death for Black travelers.”
This book consisted of a list of businesses and outlets that would serve and accept people of color, including restaurants, clubs, and stores, some rest stops and gas stations, and hotels. It created safe spaces where people of color could safely stay and get necessities along their trip.
The Green Book also included guidelines for dress and etiquette to help people of color blend into the communities and limit encounters with the law. One tip was for Black people to wear chauffeur hats if they drove a car, so they could tell officers that the car was owned by their boss. This helped keep them safer in some areas. The Green Book was updated about every year to accommodate added communities and stores and businesses.
Black people were not the only ones who faced discrimination and the threat of violence on Route 66. Mexican Americans also were targeted due to their culture and language. Asians were also sometimes barred from entering certain places on Route 66, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. During World War II, along the Route, the U.S. government forced Japanese Americans into concentration camps, taking away everything they had, according to The Los Angeles Times.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 changed all of these policies. It prohibited discrimination in public places. While things didn’t change overnight for marginalized travelers, they had more rights and faced less dangers on the road. It is important today to reflect on this legacy as we celebrate what Route 66 represents in U.S. history.
