Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Eating out on the road as a black traveler before the end of Jim Crow and de-facto Jim Crow required savvy, endurance, and thick skin. Purchasing food at segregated restaurants could be a degrading and even dangerous experience, says Virginia native Eugene Watts; you never knew when some volatile white southerner behind the counter was going to “go off.” As a result Black folks had their own zagat rated list of restaurants called The Negro Motorist Green Book.
