We are excited to host a documentary screening and talkback of The Green Book: Guide to Freedom during the opening week of The Negro Motorist Green Book, at the historic MLK Library.
In partnership with the Double Exposure Film Festival and the DC Public Library Foundation, learn how The Negro Motorist Green Book helped African-Americans navigate the roads of a segregated nation. Immediately following the film, join us for a conversation with documentary film director and screenwriter Yoruba Ruchen.
For reasonable accommodations, please contact the Center for Accessibility at 202-727-2142 or DCPLaccess@dc.gov. For ASL or tactile interpretation, please allow at least seven (7) days notice.
Learn more about the film below.
In the 1930s, a black postal carrier from Harlem named Victor Green published a book that was part travel guide and part survival guide. It was called The Negro Motorist Green Book, and it helped African-Americans navigate safe passage across America well into the 1960s. Explore some of the segregated nation's safe havens and notorious "sundown towns" and witness stories of struggle and indignity as well as opportunity and triumph.
The Negro Motorist Green Book, an exhibition developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in collaboration with award-winning author, photographer, and cultural documentarian, Candacy Taylor, offers an immersive look at the reality of travel for African Americans in mid-century America and how the annual guide served as an indispensable resource for the nation’s rising African American middle class and evidence of a vibrant business class. DC Public Library is producing a section of the exhibit on DC and the Green Book.
Click here to learn more about the Exhibit
The Double Exposure Film FestivalDouble Exposure, a project of the investigative news organization 100Reporters, celebrates the finest new films inspired by the investigative instinct. It combines film screenings for the public with a professional symposium for journalists and visual storytellers.
Moving towards its tenth edition, DX does more than just identify and celebrate a new genre of filmmaking. It casts this vital body of work toward recognition as a coherent artistic vision. It connects audience appreciation for creative output to the rights of reporters and filmmakers to pursue investigations in the public interest; it ties stirrings of artistic curiosity to practical consequences and groundbreaking storytelling to policy changes.
The DC Public Library Foundation
The DC Public Library Foundation was founded in 1985 to coordinate funding for a mural of Martin Luther King, Jr. and has since secured and administered over $4M in funding for DC Public Library programs, with literacy and children’s programs as key focus areas. Click here to learn more about this mural and its artist, Don Miller.
The District of Columbia Public Library itself was created in 1896 by an act of Congress and is dedicated to providing environments that invite reading, learning and community discussion, and opportunities for lifelong learning. The first branch of the DC Public Library was built in 1911 in Takoma Park. Soon after, additional facilities were added. The library system now includes 24 neighborhood libraries — three of which were Carnegie built — and one central library.
For over 100 years, DCPL has played a major role in serving all District residents – from the most affluent to those struggling to survive. The Library is proud to be a recognized force in the community for engaging the mind, expanding opportunities and elevating the quality of life.
The Foundation has raised substantial funds to support such programs as the library’s Summer Reading program; citywide initiatives to support early literacy, such as “Sing, Talk and Read,” which helps young parents learn the importance of using books to interact with their babies; computer training classes, especially for job seekers; and programs serving the Spanish-speaking population and those in need of special services such as the deaf or visually impaired. Additionally, the Foundation increases collections to help the library provide the best and newest books and other materials and increases library patrons’ access to emerging technologies.
AGE GROUP: | Seniors | Adults | 13 - 19 Years Old (Teens) |
