Transportation Museum and Livingstone College present Green Book events for Black History Month

Published 12:00 am Sunday, February 21, 2021

SPENCER — In observance of Black History Month, Livingstone College and the North Carolina Transportation Museum will jointly present two evenings of free community programming around the “The Negro Motorist Green Book.”

Join a virtual screening of the Smithsonian Channel documentary, “The Green Book: Guide to Freedom” (TV-PG rating; run time: 60 min.) Feb. 22 at 6:30 p.m. on the N.C. Transportation Museum’s YouTube and Facebook page, as well as on the museum’s website. Tuesday, Feb. 23, tune in at 6:30 p.m. for an evening of conversation among community leaders who will depict travel during the Jim Crow era in a discussion entitled, “The Green Book: NC Travels Down Memory Lane,” presented via Zoom, and on the N.C. Transportation Museum’s YouTube and Facebook page. To learn more about and register for both of these free events, go to www.nctrans.org/greenbook

The virtual discussion, “NC Travels Down Memory Lane,” will begin with an overview of The Green Book’s contribution to Americans by Angela Thorpe, director of the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission. Presenters include Dr. State Alexander, executive assistant to the President and vice president for communications and public relations at Livingstone College; Surluta B. Anthony, Monroe, N.C. town council member, community activist and child advocate; Mary Ponds, retired educator who was the first woman and first African-American mayor of Granite Quarry, N.C., a predominately white community that has strong historical ties to the Ku Klux Klan; and Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman, an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church leader, who is currently serving as president of the North Carolina NAACP. Dr. Da’Tarvia Parrish, chair of the History and Political Science Department at Livingstone College, will guide the evening’s conversation as the moderator.

“The Negro Motorist Green Book,” originated and published by Victor Hugo Green between 1936-1966, helped African Americans move through segregated and hostile spaces during the Jim Crow era. The publication directed Black travelers to safe “oasis spaces” as they visited family, conducted business, followed job opportunities, or vacationed. A guide and resistance tool, “The Green Book” reveals a crucial network that allowed African-American communities to survive during a turbulent period in North Carolina and America.

The exhibit “Navigating Jim Crow: The Green Book and Oasis Spaces in North Carolina” is currently on display through March 14 at the N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer. To plan a visit, call 704-636- 2889 or go to nctrans.org.

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