UPDATED 5:00 PM EST | June 23, 2025
The Green Book Map
The Green Book Project maps the availability of public accommodations, such as hotels, restaurants and gas stations
that welcomed Black travelers across the United States in the twentieth century, from 1938 to1963.
Research by Trevon Logan, Maggie E.C. Jones, David Rosé, and Lisa Cook
Visualized by Bryson Berry and Mark G. Sheppard



Instructions: to explore the Green Book Map, simply drag the timeline slider to the year you want
or click the timeline and use your keyboard’s left and right arrows then click on a state to zoom in
and hover over or scroll within each county to view its historical listings and details. The detailed
map of each state, once clicked, shows the number of establishments over time for the county.

Data includes individual establishments listed in the Negro Motorist Green Book, assigned to specific counties based on their documented locations, representing businesses that welcomed Black patrons during the era of segregation.

Note on the 1955 Drop-off: Between 1955 and 1956 there was a significant drop in the number of cities that were included in the green books and an even more significant drop in the number of establishments. The number of cities included declined by almost 100 and the number of establishments declined from 3605 to 1671. This decline does not appear to be correlated with a decline in the number of states or pages included in the Green Book. Rather, it seems that this decline reflects Urban Renewal and the expansion of the interstate highway system. Explore this more in the Black-Friendly Businesses in Cities During the Civil Rights Era paper in the Journal of Urban Economics.

Visualizations by Bryson Berry and Mark G. Sheppard.

Supported by: National Science Foundation

Source: The Green Book Project

Data: Download Data




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