4. Much of the racism encountered had to do with whites providing service
When Black motorists encountered service stations which did not sell their products to Blacks, or lunch counters where they were not allowed to sit and have a cup of coffee, it was most often not because they were considered unworthy of using the product. It was because the White gas jockey, or lunch counter man, or waitress, could not allow themselves to condescend to provide service to a Black person. Whether or not that was a concern of their own was immaterial, it was a concern to their neighbors, their fellow employees, their employers, and their local authorities. In the Jim Crow south, Blacks were to be kept in their place.
The Green Book warned of this in certain areas of the country, as did other travel guides directed towards Black motorists, as it concerned the rules of the road. Black motorists in the Mississippi delta area were warned against passing or pulling out in front of cars driven by Whites when on the unpaved roads in the region, because the dust raised by their car would soil the car behind them, making them the subject of hostility. The back roads of the Deep South were particularly dangerous for Black motorists, and the more substantial a vehicle they drove, the more likely they were to be stopped, as much because of racist local laws as because of the racial beliefs of the officer accosting them.