“Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America,” directed by historian Gretchen Sorin and director Ric Burns (younger brother of Ken Burns) premieres tonight on PBS, and the documentary reveals how the automobile — portrayed as the ultimate symbol of independence — has long been of particular significance to African Americans who relied on travel guides and informal networks to keep them safe and, most importantly, alive.
It’s hardly surprising that mobility for African Americans has always been restricted, from the days of slavery to Jim Crow America when “Sundown Towns” were a thing. “The Negro Motorist Green Book” became a necessary guide decades ago, and the focus on Black mobility continues in the form of recent stop-and-frisk laws in New York City that predominantly targeted Black people. Limitations on movement from before the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation has carried over, in different forms, into Reconstruction and beyond.
The...
It’s hardly surprising that mobility for African Americans has always been restricted, from the days of slavery to Jim Crow America when “Sundown Towns” were a thing. “The Negro Motorist Green Book” became a necessary guide decades ago, and the focus on Black mobility continues in the form of recent stop-and-frisk laws in New York City that predominantly targeted Black people. Limitations on movement from before the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation has carried over, in different forms, into Reconstruction and beyond.
The...
- 10/13/2020
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
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