6. Sleeping accommodations were often the biggest problem facing Black motorists
Tourist camps, auto camps, and even the lodges offered by some state parks did not generally cater to Blacks in the 1930s and 1940s, and even in some large urban areas it was difficult to find a hotel room for Black travelers. Sleeping in the car along the side of the road left one subject to charges of vagrancy or trespassing, regardless of the amount of money in one’s pocket. In many cities, including Chicago, the managers of the several hotels agreed to not let rooms to Blacks, though a few made exceptions for Black musicians performing in their lounges. The Green Book stressed the availability of sleeping accommodations, and the distances which had to be traveled between them.
Another consideration was the availability of gasoline. Some stations which sold gasoline to Black customers (Esso gas stations not only sold gasoline, they also sold the Green Book) were located within sundown towns, and had to be reached during daylight hours to avoid trouble. Driving at night was considered suspect by many smaller communities and rural police officers. Nor was the problem limited to the South and the border states. Anna, Illinois was by locally passed ordinance a town in which no Blacks were allowed to reside, established by the town in 1909. Some historians have listed more than half of the incorporated communities in Illinois as sundown towns in the 1930s.