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Driving While
Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights
by Gretchen Sorin
c.2020, Liveright
$28.95 / $38.95 Canada
352 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
Seat belt’s on.
Keys in the ignition, rear
view mirror’s been adjusted, steering wheel is set for
maximum comfort. You’re ready to go, ready for this trip to
get started. In Driving While Black by Gretchen
Sorin, you’re heading back in history.
Few things in America have
altered the cultural scene more than the automobile. Not
only has it changed the way we move, it affected the way we
dress, talk, and eat. But, says Sorin, for black folks, the
automobile has “meant something different”
– mainly, “the automobile
made it more difficult… to enforce racial apartheid while
cruising along the highways at forty-five miles per hour.” |
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Once was a time that black
people couldn’t travel far, if at all. Moving about from
plantation to plantation allowed opportunities for slaves to
escape or, at the very least, to learn the lay of the land,
neither of which was desirable for a slave’s owner. Even
free blacks were restricted from too much movement then.
After the Civil War ended,
former slaves began to head north for work and to escape Jim
Crow laws, a Great Migration that didn’t preclude the
occasional trip back South by rail or by bus to visit
friends and relatives. There was still segregation in travel
but the bigger fact was that travel itself was no longer
restricted.
Starting around the 1920s,
automobile ownership began to be a possibility for mobile
(and upwardly-mobile) African Americans. This meant even
more freedom – a road could lead almost anywhere – but it
could also mean danger, if you accidentally went where you
weren’t welcome. On the other hand, you could sleep in the
car, depending on the kind you bought; some vehicles were
faster, and could outrun violence; others meant fewer
fill-ups. Restroom stops, if you were black, were still an
issue.
By the 1970s, Sorin says,
this was all mostly a moot point. The Civil Rights Movement
had changed the country, and segregation at hotels and gas
stations was a thing of the past. And yet today, once again,
DWB comes with a whole different set of dangers…
Here it’s not even spring,
and you already know where you’re going on vacation this
year. If you haven’t packed a book yet, Driving While
Black is the right one to take.
You won’t be sorry if you
travel with this travel-history book. Author Gretchen
Sorin’s all-encompassing in her information, beginning with
slavery and moving at a good clip into the 20th century
with, like any decent road trip, a few side-stops along the
way. If this seems like old news, it’s not: Sorin also shows
us things we don’t often consider, including tales of black
musicians’ reliance on freer travel, how sports were changed
by fewer restrictions, and how black drivers accidentally
taught white business owners a lesson or two.
Sorin even adds personal
anecdotes to the openings of her chapters, making Driving
While Black a great vacation (or anytime) read. If
you’re needing a smart, comprehensive look at the history of
travel, grab it and buckle up.
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