"The Green Book": A Representation of the Black Middle Class and Its Resistance to Jim Crow through Entrepreneurship and Respectability

Author

Meagen Kathleen Monahan, College of William and Mary

Date Thesis Awarded

1-2013

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Arts (BA)

Department

American Studies

Advisor

Jennifer Putzi

Committee Members

Arthur Knight

Jeremy Pope

Elizabeth Schlabach

Abstract

During the mid-20th century, African American motorists constantly faced discrimination and prejudice while on the road. "The Negro Motorist Green Book," published from 1936 to 1964, was a vacation guide for black travelers. Through a close reading of "The Green Book's" advertisements, articles, and rhetoric, this paper uses the guide as a lens to examine and discuss the consciousness of its readership, the black middle class.

Recommended Citation

Monahan, Meagen Kathleen, ""The Green Book": A Representation of the Black Middle Class and Its Resistance to Jim Crow through Entrepreneurship and Respectability" (2013). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 562.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/562

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Comments

Thesis is part of Honors ETD pilot project, 2008-2013. Migrated from Dspace in 2016.