Charlotte, get ready to hit the road — through history. On November 14, 2026, the Charlotte Museum of History opens Navigating Jim Crow: The Green Book and Oasis Spaces in N.C., a traveling exhibition that celebrates the ingenuity, entrepreneurship and community spirit of Black travelers and business owners across North Carolina.
From 1936 to 1966, The Negro Motorist Green Book guided African American travelers to welcoming places to eat, sleep, refuel and celebrate. North Carolina alone contributed more than 300 listings — restaurants, hotels, tourist homes, nightclubs, barber shops and beauty salons — a remarkable network of “oasis spaces” where travelers were received with warmth and pride.
Created by the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission, the exhibition tells that story in eight vibrant panels filled with photographs of business owners and travelers, historic and present-day images of Green Book sites, and the voices of travelers and descendants of site owners, drawn from oral histories collected in 2018 and 2019. As the museum puts it, the show traces how Black travelers planned every mile — and honors the spaces that became havens along the way.
The exhibition joins a lively season at the museum’s East Charlotte campus at 3500 Shamrock Drive, where visitors can also explore the 1774 Rock House and the restored Siloam School. The Green Book exhibition is scheduled in Charlotte through February 26, 2027 — a wonderful reason for a family history day out.
Photo: Cover of The Negro Motorist Green Book, 1947, via Wikimedia Commons
