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2 Colorado activists want to create a digital 'Green Book' for minority travelers

The idea is based on a travel guide first published in the 1930s for Black people headed across the country by car.

DENVER — In the 1930s, Harlem-based postal carrier Victor Hugo Green first published “The Negro Motorist Green Book.” It was intended to be a guide to help African Americans travel across the country as safely as possible during the era of Jim Crow laws.  

It stopped publishing in 1966 – two years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Now, Crystal Egli and Parker McMullen Bushman, the co-founders of Inclusive Journeys, are trying to put a digital spin on the book.

Egli said this was inspired by her personal experiences with discrimination and desire to help other people with marginalized identities.  

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“It wasn’t until I started hunting, and now I’m walking around with a firearm, once I realized these insecurities, these fears were stopping me from providing food for my family, that is what made me realize I am not going to live like this anymore,” Egli said. “I am going to do something about this.”

Egli and Bushman said they want to help as many disenfranchised people as possible by allowing them to share their experiences at local businesses.

This includes if they feel safe, comfortable and included. Bushman said the goal is to also benefit businesses and help them get better at serving a diverse clientele. 

“It is also a way fully, finally, for businesses to be able to have data that will allow them to say ‘in what ways are we being really welcoming, and in what ways do we maybe need to change?’” Bushman said.

Egli and Bushman said they hope the digital Green Book will be a resource for everyone who is marginalized, including minority groups, members of the LGBT+ community and people with disabilities.

They said they hope to have the digital “Green Book” online sometime next year. Find more information here: https://www.inclusivejourneys.com/

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