What the postcards leave out: 5 moments in history that still echo along Route 66

Richard Mitchell, 84, of Albuquerque successful 2016. Mitchell utilized the Green Book to thrust crossed the United States successful 1964. The question usher “assured extortion for Negro travelers.”

(Photo by Craig Fritz / For The Times
)

Forty-four of the 89 counties on Route 66 were sundown towns, communities wherever it was encouraged for Black radical to permission earlier acheronian — or else. Route 66 diners, motels and state stations routinely refused work to Black travelers. In 1936, a Harlem postal idiosyncratic named Victor Green began publishing the Negro Motorist Green Book, a usher to the hotels, restaurants and state stations on the way that would service Black travelers. More than 1,400 tourer homes (private residences that took successful guests erstwhile hotels wouldn’t) were listed during the guide’s run.

For Black families connected Route 66, the Green Book was arsenic indispensable arsenic a spare tire. In Tulsa, the Greenwood District was erstwhile known arsenic “Black Wall Street.” White thugs destroyed it successful the 1921 Race Massacre. The assemblage rebuilt and became a hub of Black commerce adjacent the route. Springfield, Ill., was 1 of the archetypal cities connected Route 66 to connection services to Black travelers. It was besides the tract of the 1908 Race Riot, which helped spur the founding of the NAACP.

A vintage photograph of the Hayes Motel successful Los Angeles. It was featured successful the Green Book, which listed places that served African Americans during the epoch of segregation.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

See what remains today: Only astir 30% of Green Book sites on Route 66 are inactive standing. The DuBeau successful Flagstaff, Ariz., erstwhile a Green Book listing, present operates arsenic a motel. The precocious shuttered Clifton’s successful downtown Los Angeles sits astatine 7th and Broadway, the archetypal terminus of Route 66. Route History Museum successful Springfield is the lone depository successful the state dedicated to the Black acquisition connected Route 66, housed successful a 1930s Texaco presumption 1 artifact disconnected the road. It offers a virtual world acquisition that walks visitors done the Green Book cities of Illinois, including sundown towns.

Beyond the Green Book, different businesses that are worthy a sojourn see Threatt Filling Station successful Oklahoma, a Black-owned state presumption (and harmless haven for Black travelers) during the epoch of segregation, and the neon motion from Graham’s Rib Station, a beloved Black-owned edifice for galore years. It’s located astatine the section History Museum connected the Square successful Springfield, Mo.