From 1936 to 1964, Victor Green published the Negro Motorist Green Book, an International Travel Guide, a guide for African American tourists and travelers who were traveling during the Jim Crow era of American history.
Access to most public amenities and events was segregated by race during the period. Separate restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, railway cars, seating on buses, restrooms and water fountains were legislated for Blacks and Whites. For someone from a Black cultural background, traveling necessitated a higher degree of planning. Where could a traveler find a hotel or restaurant that would serve Black travelers? Where were there safe service stations that would provide fuel or repairs to vehicles?
Only 16 towns in Arkansas were listed as having amenities for African American travelers. In Washington County, Fayetteville was the only city listed. The 1949 Green Book listed hotel service being provided by Mebbs at 9 North Willow Avenue, and that two homes provided lodging for travelers, Mrs. S. Manuel at 313 North Olive Street and N. Smith at 259 East Center Street.
The hotel listed as “Mebbs” was very likely a cafe called Webb’s, run by Emma Webb in the early 1920s and later by her husband, James W. Webb, the pastor of St. James Baptist Church. Local phone directories listed Webb’s restaurant over the years at 14 N. Willow, 17 N. Willow and 101 N. Willow, suggesting that the Green Book listing of the address might not be correct by the current addressing on Willow.
Mrs. S. Manuel is undoubtedly Susan Marshbanks Manuel, widow of Joseph Manuel and a matriarch of the Manuel and Hayes families. She was born about 1865 and died in 1951.
N. Smith was probably Naomi Smith, the widow of Emmett Smith. She lived at 304 E. Center St., the closest address to the address listed in the Green Book. Emmett Smith had been a porter at Silverman Bros. Jewelry on the square. Although Naomi Smith appeared in directories during the 1930s, by the 1940s, she is not listed in the Fayetteville directories. She took in boarders and ran a cafe at her house during the middle part of the century.
The Green Book did not list any barbershops, beauty parlors or service stations in Fayetteville as patronizing blacks at that time.
Find out more about the difficulty of travel experienced by African American travelers at the Henry Ford Museum’s website.
Read more about the Green Book in Dave Edmark’s “Fayetteville in the Green Book”: A Knit Community,” published by the Washington County Historical Society in the Fall 2019 issue of Flashback.