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Black Elders Share What It’s Really Like To Travel While Black
‘I don’t think this is a case of Black paranoia for a minute’
The day after President Trump’s 2016 election victory, crimes based on race and ethnicity spiked. Despite a new administration in the White House four years later, the recent Trump-incited White supremacist breach of the Capitol remains seared into the public consciousness. And some Black Americans are nervous to travel their own country, evoking memories of the Jim Crow South—the era of sundown towns and the Green Book guide.
Ray Jones, a Colorado man, says in “Traveling While Black,” a new Washington Post feature: “Based on recent events in [Charlottesville] and the climate in America, I will not feel comfortable traveling south of D.C. for a few [years] when we visit the East Coast annually together.”
The story taps Black American elders and historians to map the road from past to present. A series of video interviews for the story went instantly viral, laying bare the myths of who America is and was.
You can watch the videos here. Find the full feature story below:
