Weber State Professor Discovers Other Travel Guides Beyond the Green Book

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — In January 2023, we presented you for the first time a series of historical stories about the Green Book.

It was a special travel guide that helped African-American families travel across the country from the 1930s to the 1960s.

During those years, segregation was a serious racial problem throughout the United States. Finding safe and welcoming accommodations for traveling families became increasingly important, as racial tensions in some cities could become violent.

The Green Book was created by Victor Hugo Green, a black postal worker in Harlem, New York. The book listed stores that were safe and welcomed black customers during those intense years of racial segregation.

After its publication, the book found unnoticed resonance in black communities for years.

Christine Cooper-Rompato, a researcher and English professor at Utah State University, provided background on specific areas of downtown Salt Lake City that were once home to Green Book businesses.

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“And it was just really important to have good places, safe places to stay,” she said during an interview in 2023.

About a year later, Rompato came across new and surprising information about other travel guides that once existed and were also aimed at the black community.

“And so at first I was surprised, I don’t think I was necessarily shocked, because I thought, this is a wonderful idea!” said Rompato.

This ultimately developed into a new research project for Rompato, but she is not tackling it alone.

She has brought in several USU students who will help research the guides and the companies featured in them.

So far, information from the guidebooks has led researchers to locations in Logan, Ogden, Kanab and Brigham City.

Rompato said all of this information discovered will serve a special purpose: highlighting Utah’s black history.

She said, “All of this will be part of a traveling exhibition at the Sema Hadithi African American Heritage Foundation Museum.”

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