Simanaitis Says
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LEST TRUMP FORGETS (AS IF HE EVER KNEW) PART 2
YESTERDAY’S MENTION OF ROAD TRIPS brought to mind The Negro Motorist Green Book published annually between 1936 and 1966. Perhaps it’s too much reading for the likes of Trump, what with his being busy with revamping American history. Here in Part 2, we’ll turn to a relevant movie. And even to a fellow named Peter Egan writing in R&T.
The Green Book Flick. Wikipedia notes of this 2018 biographical comedy drama, “The film is inspired by the true story of a 1962 tour of the Deep South by African-American pianist Don Shirley and Italian-American bouncer and later actor Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga, who served as Shirley’s driver and bodyguard.”
Wikipedia continues, “Green Book had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2018, where it won the People’s Choice Award….It won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (for Ali). It also won the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture, the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and the National Board of Review award for the best film of 2018, and was chosen as one of the top 10 films of the year by the American Film Institute.”
And Long Before That, Thanks to Peter Egan…. R&T readers learned about road trip guides catering to African American travelers. In his July 1998 column “Real Blue Highways,” Peter cites the Travelguide, 1946; The Negro Motorist Green Book, The Greenbook Vacation Guide, and the Travel Guide of Negro Hotels and Guest Houses, “the last being arranged by state and city offering ‘population statistics, points of interest and civil rights laws,’ along with ‘names and addresses of dentists, florists, restaurants, guest houses, golf courses, amusements and much more.”
“Strange business,” Peter continued. “Behind all those cheerful words: ‘restaurants’ and ‘golf courses’ and ‘amusements,’ redolent of the good times we all look forward to when traveling, was the chilling reality of exclusion and its cruel byproduct, humiliation.”
“Was”? And Now? We have the President of the United States “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” He complains that “The prior administration advanced this corrosive ideology,” and goes on to “Saving Our Smithsonian.”
It’s as if Trump’s memory of history extends only as far as the Biden administration.
Quick, before it’s taken down, read the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service’s “Lighting The Way Where The Way Was Dark: The Negro Motorist Green Book.”
Montage from Smithsonian.
A Concluding Iteration: Wikipedia writes, “The Negro Motorist Green Book (also, The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, or Green-Book) was a guidebook for African American roadtrippers. It was founded by Victor Hugo Green, an African American postal worker from New York City, and was published annually from 1936 to 1966.”
It’s said that passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made the Green-Book obsolete. Perhaps—but surely it’s not to be forgotten. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025
Simanaitis Says 
I’m 1/2 of a blended family and have a biracial son .
My Sweet and I like to travel by ground and we still get the odd looks and occasionally poor service where they clearly show we’re not overly welcome .
I hope I can somehow forget trump ere long .
-Nate
Today’s Simanaitis Says another gem, and a vital one. The Green Book was a powerful movie, one that should be seen by every American.