Jim Crow-Era ‘Green Books’ Never Went Away, They Just Changed Focus

During the era of Jim Crow, there was a book published titled, “The Negro Motorist Green Book.” It was a guide for black people who traveled through the segregationist South, warning them of what the laws in each place they might pass through were, all to help keep them out of trouble. It didn’t always work, but mostly because some places were so damned racist that it didn’t matter if you did anything wrong, you were still likely to get jammed up.

The publication essentially ended with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, publishing just one more edition following its passage.

But the concept didn’t go away. Not really. It just had to change focus somewhat, as I’m reminded following a review over at American Rifleman.

Newly updated for 2025, the 29th edition of the Traveler’s Guide To The Firearm Laws Of The Fifty States is packed with all the need-to-know information for cross-country trekkers seeking to bring their arms along with them and remain legal in all localities.

The 68-page booklet includes more than 90 changes from the previous edition, notably providing online updates for conditional reciprocity states, a full-page interactive CCW reciprocity map and 50 new subheadings outlining gun carry inside of church buildings.

The guide also includes a listing of which states have red flag laws.

Now, before anyone gets butthurt here, I’m well aware that there are differences between being discriminated against simply because of your ethnicity and a listing of gun control laws in various states. We aren’t born carrying guns. They’re not built into our existence, so we can simply opt not to carry if we don’t want to fool with it.

Black folks couldn’t exactly opt not to be black.

I get it. I really do.

But both the green books and this guide exist to keep people from getting jammed up by law enforcement over basic civil liberties. Yeah, I can opt not to carry, but should I have to? Should I be required to leave myself defenseless just to avoid needing to navigate state laws that make no sense at all?

This guide, like the earlier book for black men and women, is about how to navigate infringements on your rights. Sure, one infringement was more egregious than the other, if for no other reason than it targeted people for who they were rather than what they did, but that doesn’t change what they are at the end of the day.

Imagine needing a guide like this so you knew what words you had to avoid using in certain states or communities? What about what that told you about what churches you could attend from one state to another?

It would be ridiculous, just as the green books were in the era of Jim Crow.

I don’t lament that someone published such a book, just as I don’t lament that someone published the green books back in the day.

What I lament is that we live in a world where either was necessary at all, and one where at one of those books still is and likely will be for the foreseeable future.

That’s what bothers me. It’s what should bother all of us.