Utah State University professor discovers more travel guides beyond Green Book

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — In January of 2023, we first introduced you to a series of history stories surrounding the Green Book.

It was a special travel guide that helped African American families navigate cross-country travel during the 1930s to 1960s.

During those years, segregation was a serious racial issue across the United States. Finding safe and welcoming businesses for traveling families became more critical, as racial tensions in some towns could turn violent.

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

When published, the book matriculated quietly within Black communities for years.

Christine Cooper-Rompato, researcher and English professor with Utah State University, shared background information on certain areas of downtown Salt Lake City where Green Book businesses once existed.

RELATED: Utah State professor shares info on Green Book sites

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

Roughly a year later, Rompato came across new and surprising information about other travel guides that once existed, that also catered to Black communities.

“And so originally I was surprised, I don’t think shocked necessarily because I thought, that’s a wonderful idea!” Rompato said.

This ultimately turned into a new research project for Rompato, but she’s not tackling this one by herself.

She’s included several USU students, who will help with researching the travel guides and the businesses listed in them.

So far, information from the travel guides have taken the researchers to sites in Logan, Ogden, Kanab and Brigham City.

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

She said, “All of these will be turned into part of a traveling museum exhibit for Sema Hadithi African American Heritage Foundation.”

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