Victor Hugo Green
Victor Hugo Green (November 9, 1892 – October 16, 1960) was an American postal employee and travel writer from Harlem, New York City,[1] best known for developing and writing what became known as The Green Book, a travel guide for African Americans in the United States. During the time the book was published, choices of lodging, restaurants and even gas stations were limited for black people in many places, both in the Southern United States and outside this region. The book was first published as The Negro Motorist Green Book and later as The Negro Travelers' Green Book. The books were published from 1936 to 1966.[2] He printed 15,000 copies each year.
Victor Hugo Green
November 9, 1892
16 October 1960 (aged 67)
Hackensack Cemetery, New Jersey
In the 1930s, Green began his work by compiling data on stores and motels and gas stations in New York City area that welcomed black travelers, and published his first guide in 1936.[3] Green's guide was so popular that he immediately began to expand its coverage the next year to other US destinations, adding hotels and restaurants as well. After retiring from the Postal Service, Green continued to work on updating issues of The Green Book. In addition, he developed the related travel agency business he had established in 1947.
Biography[edit]
Victor Hugo Green, named for the noted French author, was born on November 9, 1892, in Manhattan, New York City.[4] He was the eldest of three children of Alice A. (Holmes) and William H. Green. His family moved and he grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey.[5] Starting in 1913 he worked in Bergen County, New Jersey as a postal carrier for the US Postal Service.[4][3]
On September 8, 1917, in Brooklyn, New York[6] Green married Alma S. Duke (1889–1978) of Richmond, Virginia.[7] She came to New York as part of the Great Migration from the South to northern cities in the early twentieth century. After their marriage, the couple moved to Harlem, New York, which was attracting blacks from across the country. It developed as a center of black arts and culture in the period of the Harlem Renaissance. They lived in an apartment at 580 St. Nicholas Avenue.[8]
Green was employed by the United States Postal Service as a letter carrier. He was subsequently drafted into the United States Army to serve in World War I,[9] even though he had requested exemption from the draft due to his "employment in the transmission of mail."[10] He served as a member of the Supply Company of the 350th Field Artillery, 92nd Division, rising to the rank of Regimental Supply Sergeant.[11] He sailed for France with his unit on June 30, 1918, from Hoboken, New Jersey on the troop carrier SS President Grant. He returned to the United States from Brest, France on the troop carrier SS Maui on February 16, 1919, landing in Hoboken on the 28th.[12]