How Finding Community Abroad Enveloped Me in Black Joy
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The joy the Black community instills in its members is nothing short of spiritual. As a US Citizen, my Blackness, at times, seems like a heavy burden. For years, no matter what ambition I held, I would hear voices echoing in my head that I needed to be twice as good to receive half of what a white person earned. Can you imagine how exhausting it can be to lead a productive life only to be reduced to a color, no matter what you do? But through travel, I ve been able to shed much of the angst. Thanks to the Black community, I ve gained the power to heal and grow into a person I become more proud of each day.
Image zoom | Credit: Courtesy of Mario Rigby
Few people would relish being told where they can and can t go. But that was the reality for African Americans living in the Jim Crow era.
From 1936 to 1966,
The Negro Motorist Green Book and subsequent titles helped keep Black travelers and their families safe, with warnings about sundown towns, where people of color could face intimidation and violence after dark, and recommendations on the hotels, restaurants, and businesses that would welcome them. Portrait of unidentified people on the wooden steps of the Idlewild Club House, Idlewild, Michigan, September 1938.
Image zoom
A snapshot taken in 1938 in Idlewild, Michigan, a resort town that welcomed African Americans and became known as the Black Eden.