Ruth and the Green Book

Ruth was so excited to take a trip in her family's new car! In the early 1950s, few African Americans could afford to buy cars, so this would be an adventure. But she soon found out that black travelers weren't treated very well in some towns. Many hotels and gas stations refused service to black people. Daddy was upset about something called Jim Crow laws . . .



Finally, a friendly attendant at a gas station showed Ruth's family The Green Book. It listed all of the places that would welcome black travelers. With this guidebook—and the kindness of strangers—Ruth could finally make a safe journey from Chicago to her grandma's house in Alabama.



Ruth's story is fiction, but The Green Book and its role in helping a generation of African American travelers avoid some of the indignities of Jim Crow are historical fact.

• The Negro Motorist Green-Book: 1940 Facsimile Edition
• The Princess and the Warrior: A Tale of Two Volcanoes (Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature. Commended)
• Grand Canyon
• Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation (Jane Addams Award Book (Awards))
• This Is the Rope: A Story from the Great Migration
• Balloons over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade (Bank Street College of Education Flora Stieglitz Straus Award (Awards))
• Back of the Bus
• Let the Children March
• Child of the Civil Rights Movement (Junior Library Guild Selection)
• Last Stop on Market Street