a page-turning exhibit

Stirring exhibition spotlighting life-saving travel book for Black Americans motors into Houston

'Four young women standing beside a convertible automobile, ca. 1958' from “The Negro Motorist Green Book.”

Courtesy WANN Radio Station Records,Archives Center, National Museum ofAmerican History, Smithsonian Institution

Created in 1936 by Harlem postman Victor Hugo Green and published until 1967, The Negro Motorist Green Book provided critical, life-saving information on restaurants, gas stations, department stores and other businesses that welcomed African American travelers during an era of segregation and Jim Crow laws.

Now, it’s mostly known as the book that inspired that cute racism movie that bafflingly won the Best Picture Oscar over Black Panther and BlacKkKlansman. But, in September, a new exhibition at Holocaust Museum Houston will remind people just how important this annual guide was back in the day.

“The Negro Motorist Green Book,” developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in collaboration with award-winning author, photographer and cultural documentarian Candacy Taylor, opens at Holocaust Museum Houston’s Josef and Edith Mincberg Gallery beginning Friday, September 1.

This exhibition, made possible through the support of ExxonMobil (which played a significant role in the book’s distribution through its U.S. network of Esso stations), will offer an immersive look at the reality of safe travel for African Americans during the mid-century.

$Victor hugo green The NegroTravelers\u2019 Green Book$ Victor Hugo Green from “The NegroTravelers’ Green Book,” Fall Edition,1956.Courtesy Schomburg Center for Research inBlack Culture, Manuscripts, Archives, andRare BooksDivision, The New York PublicLibrary

'First day of Memphis integration, TN, 1961,'\u00a0from \u201cThe Negro Motorist Green Book.\u201d

Dr. Ernest C. Withers. Collection of theSmithsonian National Museum of AfricanAmerican History and Culture. (C) Ernest C.Withers Trust

'First day of Memphis integration, TN, 1961,' from "The Negro Motorist Green Book."

During the exhibit, which runs through Sunday, November 26, ExxonMobil will host Free Family Sundays on the first and third Sundays.

Viewers can gaze upon artifacts such as business signs and postcards to historic footage, images and firsthand accounts to convey the apprehension felt by Black travelers. The exhibit will also illustrate the resilience, innovation and elegance of families striving to live a full life in America.

'The Negro Motorist Green Book' 1940 edition.Courtesy Schomburg Center for Research inBlack Culture, Jean BlackwellHutsonResearch and Reference Division, New YorkPublic Library

It's also meant to bring focus to a vibrant parallel world of African American businesses, the rise of Black leisure class and the important role the guide played in facilitating the second wave of the Great Migration.

Some 115 former, Black travel sites have been identified in Houston, with 13 sites “still standing” and eight of those noted in the book, according to research by the Texas Historical Commission.

One of the most iconic sites on the list is the historic Eldorado Ballroom at Project Row Houses in the Third Ward, which recently reopened after a $9.7 million renovation, as CultureMap reported. A fitting closing chapter to a pivotal book, indeed.

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“The Negro Motorist Green Book” runs Friday, September 1 through Sunday, November 26 at Holocaust Museum Houston (5401 Caroline St.). For tickets, hours, and more information, visit hmh.org/GreenBook.

sit and relax

Rothko Chapel dedicates a peaceful new garden for quiet contemplation

Photo by Brian Austin, courtesy of Rothko Chapel.

The Rothko Chapel will dedicate its new Peace Garden on Friday, November 14.

Generations of Houstonians have experienced moments of quiet contemplation inside the Rothko Chapel. Now, they can do so just outside its walls as well.

On Friday, November 14, the chapel will dedicate the the Kathleen and Chuck Mullenweg Peace and Reflection Garden. Described in press materials as “a contemplative outdoor space designed to foster stillness, renewal, and connection,” it’s the latest addition to the Rothko campus as part of its Opening Spaces expansion project.

Similar to the chapel’s minimal interior of black panels, the new Peace Garden offers a relatively austere environment of benches surrounded by low plants and shaded by young trees. It allows visitors to sit quietly and relax while experiencing sunlight, the sky, and the day’s weather. The chapel cites research by Harvard University that found time spent outdoors has a number of health benefits, including reducing stress, lowering blood pleasure, and improving mental well-being.

“Few places in the world embody the marriage of the sacred and the civic as profoundly as the Rothko Chapel,” Rothko Chapel president Abdullah Antepli said in a statement. “This new peace and reflection garden extends that invitation outward — a place where silence becomes a shared language, and where reflection can blossom into hope.”

Rothko Chapel Mullenweg Peace Garden Another view of the garden. Photo by Brian Austin, courtesy of Rothko Chapel.

The Peace Garden will be open daily during the same hours as the Rothko Chapel.

Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects worked with the Rothko Chapel to design the garden. The firm has been involved in a number of projects in Houston, including ongoing work at Memorial Park and the recently-dedicated Ismaili Center.

First announced last year, the Opening Spaces campaign is a $51 million project to expand the Rothko Chapel campus with additional buildings. Led by Architecture Research Office (ARO),

it includes the new Administrative and Archives Building and the Welcome House. Still to come are a new Program Center, building a guest bungalow for speakers and fellows, and creating a tree-shaded plaza that will serve as a venue for events. So far, the chapel has raised $38 million towards that final goal.

The dedication ceremony will feature remarks by Christopher Rothko, chair of the Rothko Chapel Capital Campaign; Matt Mullenweg, Houston native and co-founder of WordPress; Lanie McKinnon, principal at Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBWLA); Adam Yarinsky, principal of Architecture Research Office (ARO); Troy Porter, Rothko Chapel board chair; Council Member Abbie Kamin; and Abdullah Antepli, president of the Rothko Chapel.

parks museums rothko chapel openings