OPENING the ROAD: VICTOR HUGO GREEN and HIS GREEN BOOK an Educator’S Guide Created by Keila V
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OPENING THE ROAD: VICTOR HUGO GREEN AND HIS GREEN BOOK An Educator’s Guide created by Keila V. Dawson illustrated by Alleanna Harris INTRODUCTION Table of Contents Dear Readers, Introduction 1 As gatekeepers of information presented to children, it is imperative Pre-Reading Discussion 3 that we adults mind the gap of our own knowledge and awareness. For your reference, in the back matter ofOpening the Road is an Post-Reading Discussion 7 illustrated timeline of events that influenced, affected, and motivated Victor Hugo Green during his lifetime. The author’s note addresses Activities 8 historical events but also current events. To understand the present, Beyond the Book 13 we study the past. The knowledge passed on to youth, including truthful accounts of harsh history, will better prepare them to plan for Worksheets 15 a kinder, more equitable, and inclusive future. Victor Hugo Green opened the road for Black motorists. Books open hearts and minds. Our country is at a crossroads. The road is under construction and we the people are the engineers who will determine where it leads. The destination is ours to choose. Keila V. Dawson Guide content copyright © 2021 by Keila V. Dawson. Available free of charge for educational use only; may not be published or sold without express written permission. Illustrations © 2021 by Alleanna Harris. 1 | Opening the Road Educator’s Guide | BeamingBooks.com ABOUT THE BOOK After the United States built highways, anyone with a car had the freedom to hit the open road. But in a segregated America, getting from one place to another was not easy or safe for Black travelers. To address the problem, Victor Hugo Green created the Negro Motorist Green Book travel guide. This book explores how Green and a community had the ingenuity, courage, and resilience to circumvent the roadblocks of injustice and discrimination during legal segregation. ABOUT THIS GUIDE This guide offers activities to help teachers integrateOpening the Road into the classroom. It’s designed to engage students in discussions about Black travel in America—past and present— and challenge them and their communities to work toward change for a better future. Discussion and activities were created in conjunction with the Common Core Standards and other relevant content standards. ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR Keila V. Dawson is an author and former educator, community organizer, educational consultant, and advocate for children with special needs. She is a New Orleans native and the author of The King Cake Baby and co-editor of No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History. As an educator, she has worked in the U.S., the Philippines, Japan, and Egypt. Dawson lives in Cincinnati, Ohio www.keiladawson.com Alleanna Harris is a New Jersey-based children’s book illustrator. She has previously illustrated several picture books, including Making Their Voices Heard: The Inspiring Friendship of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe, Patricia’s Vision: The Doctor Who Saved Sight, and The Journey of York: The Unsung Hero of the Lewis and Clark. www.alleannaharris.com 2 | Opening the Road Educator’s Guide | BeamingBooks.com PRE-READING DISCUSSION THE BOOK COVER Show students the cover and ask: • What are the people doing in each picture? What makes you think that? • Do you think this story is set in the past or the present? Explain. • Looking at the pictures, what do you think this book is about? • What do you see happening that you have seen or done yourself? Explain. • Who is the main character in this book? Where did you find that information? • What do you think “hit the road” means? • What do you think opening the road means? • Have you ever heard of Victor Hugo Green? BUILING BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE • Where have you and your family traveled to on road trips? • What routes do you think concerned the adult driving you? Why? • Was the trip or route you took planned around whether you could… • find food? • find gas for the car? • use the restroom when needed? • find a hotel room if your family needed to stop and rest? • How would you feel about traveling without knowing if you could find food or use the restroom or find a hotel room if you or the person driving got tired? • Do you think the road was always open and safe for all Americans who wanted to travel? 3 | Opening the Road Educator’s Guide | BeamingBooks.com VOCABULARY Vocabulary needed to understand the concepts presented in this story. civil rights activist activism Actions such movement A person who joins as speaking, a movement and/ Organized actions demonstrations, or takes committed by a large group of or protests that action to solve people to end racial challenge existing a problem and/ discrimination under rules or laws as ways or improve a the law and demand to achieve common community. equal rights for goals. Black Americans. community discrimination injustice A social group of When the rights any size living in When a person is of a person or a the same place or treated unfairly group of people who share the same because of some of are disrespected or attitudes, interests, their identity. ignored. and goals. 4 | Opening the Road Educator’s Guide | BeamingBooks.com VOCABULARY Vocabulary needed to understand the concepts presented in this story. Jim Crow protest segregation The name given When people come to laws passed in together after A system of forced Southern States that something happens separation based on forced separation that they don’t like race by law or social between white and and want things to custom. Black Americans. change. social justice separate but sundown When people are equal town respected and treated fairly and allowed The law that legalized A city, town or the same rights as separating white and neighborhood that others no matter Black U.S. citizens as required Black the community they long as services were Americans to leave belong to. equal. before sunset. 5 | Opening the Road Educator’s Guide | BeamingBooks.com PICTURE WALK Before reading the story, look at each page and introduce students to the concepts and vocabulary needed to understand the story. Ask students: Page/s: 2-3 How do you think the two people driving in the car feel? Why? 4-5 What do you see happening in this picture? What makes you think that? 6-7 How are the two water fountains the same? How are they different? 8-9 What do you think it’s like to be on a road trip and drive at night? 10-11 Do you think the man in the car is welcome in this city? Why or why not? Why do you think the children are watching instead of playing the park? 12-13 Who do you think the man is in this picture? Describe his expression. 14-15 What is the job of the man at the bottom of the steps in this picture? What tells you that? How do you think the man feels in the next picture? 16-17 What does the first picture on this page show? What is the man doing in the next picture? Where could the group of people be gathered together? 18-19 Describe what you see in these two pictures. 20-21 What are the children doing in this picture? What are the adults doing? 22-23 Describe what you see in this picture. Where are they? What tells you that? 24-25 What do you think this family is doing in this picture? What makes you think that? Why? 26-27 What do you see happening in these pictures? 28-29 What do you think these are pictures of? What makes you think that? 30-31 What are the people doing in this picture? Describe what you see. 32-33 How do you think the man and woman feel in this picture? Why? 34-34 What is the family doing in this picture? Compare and contrast it to the other pictures of families on road trips. What’s the same about it? What’s different? 36-37 Why do you think there’s an author’s note in the back of the book? 38-39 Why is the timeline in the shape of a road? What do you think the numbers mean next to where each car stopped? 6 | Opening the Road Educator’s Guide | BeamingBooks.com POST-READING DISCUSSION STORY DISCUSSION • Do you think the road was open and safe for all American who wanted to travel? Explain. • What is segregation? • What do you think “separate but equal” means? • Where did Victor Hugo Green get the idea to write his Green Book travel guide? • Why did Victor Hugo Green add more states to his book? • How did Victor Hugo Green find businesses to put in his travel guide? • In cities where hotels refused to give rooms to Black travelers, where did they stay at night? • What is a sundown town? • What was the purpose of Jim Crow laws? • How did Victor Hugo Green sell his books? • What happened that helped Victor Hugo Green sell a lot more books? • What made traveling difficult for Victor Hugo Green and other Black travelers? • How did the Green Book make traveling easier for Black motorists? • Was Victor Hugo Green an activist? Why or why not? • In what ways did legal segregation harm Black people in everyday life? • In what ways did legal segregation harm white people? • Were things “separate but equal” for Black Americans during legal segregation? • Why or why not? • Why did Black motorists drive at night, all night? • How did the Black community help Victor Hugo Green? • Were Black residents better off in states like New York that had laws to protect their rights? • Why do you think there are laws today to protect Black citizens? • Why is it important to learn about what happened to Black travelers a long time ago? • How is what happened to Black travelers during Victor Hugo Green’s lifetime relevant today? • Who else is taking action like Victor Hugo Green to make life better for Black Americans? • What are they doing? • What could you do? 7 | Opening the Road Educator’s Guide | BeamingBooks.com ACTIVITIES VOCABULARY SENTENCE OR STORY • Vocabulary sentences: Select words from the vocabulary list.