Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America -- Candacy Taylor, Paperback

A New York Times Notable Book, Overground Railroad explores the historical role and residual impact of the Green Book, the "Bible of Black Travel"

Published from 1936 to 1967, during the Jim Crow years and into the civil rights movement, when travel for black America was difficult and dangerous, the Green Book was an ingenious solution to a horrific problem. It listed hotels, restaurants, gas stations, stores, nightclubs, and other businesses across the United States that were safe for black people to patronize. Overground Railroad celebrates the stories behind--and contained within--Victor Green's guide, tracing its history and revealing the contemporary events that helped shape how black people endured and triumphed despite incredible obstacles.

Candacy Taylor drove through the neighborhoods where Green Book sites once thrived. Her work documents the scars that redlining, urban renewal, gentrification, and mass incarceration have left on these communities. Although less than 5 percent of Green Book businesses are still operating, these sites of sanctuary symbolize black ingenuity, resourcefulness, strength, entrepreneurship, and resilience. Overground Railroad tells the untold story of black travel, offering readers a rich opportunity to reexamine America's story of segregation, black migration, and the rise of the black leisure class.

Author: Candacy Taylor
Publisher: Abrams Press
Published: 01/13/2026
Pages: 360
Binding Type: Paperback
Size: 9.50h x 6.50w x 1.45d
ISBN: 9781419786211

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 8.6
Point Value: 9
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 523606 / Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America

About the Author
CANDACY TAYLOR is an award-winning author, photographer, and cultural documentarian. Her work has been featured in more than fifty eighty media outlets, including The New Yorker, Newsweek, Oprah, Time Magazine, and the Atlantic. She curated Green Book, a traveling exhibition by the Smithsonian, and has received numerous fellowships and grant awards, including those from the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Park Service, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Taylor has driven more than half a million miles documenting American culture, and after learning about the Green Book, she never looked at travel, or even America, the same way again. Taylor lives in Chicago.