vote for every citizen. Cars facilitated civil rights in a
segregated world in which the participants needed the
ability to travel to different cities quickly and safely.
Black cabbies also were not permitted to pick up
passengers at many airports (depending on state and
local laws), and many taxis were “whites only,” leaving
Black travelers stranded curbside. This dilemma made
the “Fly and Rent Club” an essential part of any civil
rights action.
The rental car made transportation to and from the
airport convenient and proved to be an essential part
of travel for Dr. Martin Luther King, other civil rights
leaders, and Black corporate executives during those
fraught times.
Although there continue to be disparities between
Black American life and white life, Black travelers
today generally do not worry about being lynched by
white mobs or being turned away from hotels simply
because of skin color. For the most part, driving into
“unknown” communities is less dangerous today than
it was a half century ago—though the recent murder of
Ahmaud Arbery for jogging in a white neighborhood
is a frightening reminder of the desire of some white
Americans to control the mobility of Black Americans.
In recent years, the ubiquitous cell phone camera,
as well as a significant body of university research
on traffic stops throughout the country (such as the
Stanford Open Policing Project, involving the study of
more than 200 million traffic stops), have proven that
racial bias has continued in its application by police.
The unjust treatment of Black Americans by the
authorities, and the resulting fear of the police, goes
back much further than Jim Crow. It began with slave
patrols that moved through communities at night
looking for fugitive slaves and seeking to preventAdvertisements within Victor Hugo Green’s Green
Book often featured photographs of proprietors to
prove they were Black-owned businesses. Savvy
business owners would use pictures taken with civil
rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Hairdresser
Vernell Allen
(above) arrives
in Atlantic City,
where Black
tourists could
enjoy a resort
experience.
Below: This
banner on
Main Street in
Greenville, Texas,
frightened many
Black travelers.68 MOTORTREND.COM SEPTEMBER 2020
FEATURE I Driving While Black