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Community Conversation: The Eggleston Family Legacy and The Green Book

Sun, Jan 26 | 2–3:30 pm

Leslie Cheek Theater

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Discover the history of The Negro Motorist Green Book through a screening of the Smithsonian Channel film The Green Book: Guide to Freedom (51 min) followed by a discussion between Melody Short, Director of Operations and Marketing, Akwaaba Bed & Breakfast Inns; Dr. Michael Hall, Assistant Professor of English, VCU; and Neverett Eggleston Jr., whose family owned the historic Eggleston Hotel and Motel from the 1930s to the ’90s.

Image of the Eggleston Family in front of the Eggleston Hotel and Motel
Cover image for the Greenbook Smithsonian film

Film: The Green Book: Guide to Freedom
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.

IMAGE CREDITS:
Photo by Larry Roach, courtesy Black History Museum & Cultural Center Archives Neverett Eggleston Sr., Neverett Eggleston Jr. and Neverett Eggleston III at 541 N. Second St.
Photo Courtesy of The Smithsonian Channel