It was a different time in the summer of 2019 when Janée Woods Weber, an activist and social justice educator, joined BBC presenter Alvin Hall on a road trip tracing the legacy of the Green Book a travel guide published from 1937 to 1966 that shared safe road routes for Black travelers. But as this summer came around—dubbed the summer of road trips by many, but also filled with marches and social activism addressing police brutality and systemic racism—the duo's trip seemed all the more prescient. It's all gathered in their new podcast from Macmillan, Driving the Green Book, which follows the journeys Black travelers took to the South and the memories those who grew up in the Jim Crow Era have of the groundbreaking book. We sat down with Janée to hear about what went into planning the road trip last year, what stories from Black elders she met along the way have stuck with her, and which Black-owned businesses she can't wait to visit when we're able to travel freely again.
Read a full transcript of the episode: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-the-green-book-shaped-a-generation-of-black-travelers-women-who-travel
Read more about Driving the Green Book: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/driving-the-green-book-podcast
Listen to Janée's podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/driving-the-green-book/id1519839250
Follow Janée: @janeepwoods
Follow Lale: @lalehannah
Follow Meredith: @ohheytheremere
Follow Women Who Travel: @womenwhotravel