COLUMBUS, Ohio — Rita Fuller-Yates has studied Columbus' Black history for years and found that two former Green Book sites share a home on North Monroe Street.
In the mid-1900s, segregation was more than just separate bathrooms and water fountains. When traveling, Black people couldn’t always stay at the nearby motel or hotel — which led to the creation of the green book — a list of safe places to eat and sleep.
“It actually was solving a problem as well as creating a resource,” said Rita Fuller-Yates, a Columbus Black history expert. “It was a resource to identify safe places for African Americans to stay while they would journey through the north which happened to be Ohio”
Victor Hugo Green created the first Green Book in 1936 in response to white hotel and motel establishments discriminating against Black people. It’s a common misconception that segregation was reserved for the south.
Segregation functioned across the U.S., making Green Books vital to Black travel. The two homes on North Monroe were a hotel and boarding house in what once was the Bronzeville neighborhood. The area was created by the hundreds of African Americans that migrated north for better opportunities.
“After the turn of the century, segregation became more popular, because it became a great migration of us,” said Fuller-Yates.
These neighborhoods weren’t just made of homes. Small Black businesses thrived in what we know as the Far East community. Barbershops, grocery stores, and hotels thrived in what Black central Ohioans referred to as the Columbus Black Wall Street.
The buildings, 65 and 70 North Monroe St., were owned by the Hawkins family. Both homes created a sense of home for many African Americans.
“African Americans would come and journey through these places but not only that but would build community with friends within the places,” said Fuller-Yates. “Possibly learning where one another comes from, possibly building friendships that would last a lifetime. There were a couple of stories where families came here to get married downtown in the city of Columbus, so it was a safe place for African Americans to stay while they journeyed through the city of Columbus.”
The book was an evolving document. At its start, there were only a few sites listed in Columbus, but at its height in 1952, there were over 70 sites. By 1957, there were only 20 and the last Green Book was published in 1966.
The Hawkins family hotel and boarding house are now apartments. Fuller-Yates said while things change, it’s important to remember that history is all around us.
“Columbus Black history is history you can touch, and the more you touch your history, the more relevant it is to you so it's important that we know what sits around us and not just what’s in our history books,” said Fuller-Yates.
There were hundreds of Green Book sites located across the state and several are still around today.