UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: Could I see some ID?ĭEGGANS: Experts like West, largely African American, are the voice of the film. SORIN: It allows us to understand the way that African Americans have moved forward in this country and the way that African Americans have been pushed back.ĭEGGANS: And the drama of this story is summed up by historian Christopher West.ĬHRISTOPHER WEST: I think it's really, really tough for the majority of Americans to begin to even understand the gut-wrenching horror that is driving in a racist society. She developed the film with director Ric Burns based on her book 'Driving While Black: African American Travel And The Road To Civil Rights.' GRETCHEN SORIN: Mobility is essential to freedom.ĭEGGANS: That's historian Gretchen Sorin. (SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, 'DRIVING WHILE BLACK') NPR TV critic Eric Deggans says that after watching it, you might never look at your car the same way again.ĮRIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: The film 'Driving While Black' offers an idea that's both eye-opening and surprisingly simple - that much of the nation's turmoil over slavery, racial issues and civil rights connects to the ability of Black people to move freely through the country. She has curated innumerable exhibits―including with the Smithsonian, the Jewish Museum and the New York State Historical Association―and lives in upstate New York.Tonight, PBS debuts 'Driving While Black.' It's a documentary that posits major events, like the Civil War or the civil rights movement, are connected to the ability, or lack thereof, of Black Americans to travel. Gretchen Sorin is distinguished professor and director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program of the State University of New York. At the heart of this story is Victor and Alma Green’s famous Green Book, begun in 1936, which made possible that most basic American right, the family vacation, and encouraged a new method of resisting oppression.Įnlivened by Sorin’s personal history, Driving While Black opens an entirely new view onto the African American experience, and shows why travel was so central to the Civil Rights movement.

Gretchen Sorin recovers a forgotten history of black motorists, and recounts their creation of a parallel, unseen world of travel guides, black only hotels, and informal communications networks that kept black drivers safe.

Yet cars have always held distinct importance for African Americans, allowing black families to evade the many dangers presented by an entrenched racist society and to enjoy, in some measure, the freedom of the open road.

The ultimate symbol of independence and possibility, the automobile has shaped this country from the moment the first Model T rolled off Henry Ford’s assembly line. This event is free and open to the public. This March, the Midtown Scholar Bookstore is honored to welcome author Gretchen Sorin to Harrisburg as she presents her new book, Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights.

Driving while black sorin