Annie’s America
1954-1956
Automobile Travel in the Jim Crow Era.
Annie traversed the country north, south, east and west, and found mostly a warm welcome, but a Black Americans traveling during this time period would not have found the same freedoms and courtesies that she found..
Middle-class black travelers gravitated toward automobile ownership to escape the humiliation of segregated public transportation, but automobile travel also created unique hardship and danger for African-Americans. Black travelers were routinely refused accommodation from whites-only establishments: hotels and restaurants, and service stations refused to serve them or provide automobile repairs. Black travelers were frequently subjected to arbitrary arrest or threats of violence as they passed through towns with "sundown laws” that did not allow African Americans within the town’s boundaries after sunset. Black automobile travelers had to plan carefully to avoid the cruel and widespread discriminatory practices— conditions that were not limited to traveling through southern states, but could occur anywhere in America. Some travelers carried portable toilets with them, knowing that many establishment would not allow black travelers to use their restrooms.
While Annie relied mostly on gas station maps for navigation, Black automobile travelers relied on the “Green Book,” published between 1936 and 1966, which listed establishments in all fifty states that would welcome black travelers. The Green Book, written and published by Victor Hugo Green, was the most relied on resource for Black travelers during Annie’s era and was the source for the recent award-winning 2018 Hollywood film, Green Book.
Learn More
Learn more about travel during Annie’s era with these companion books and films that will illuminate the African-American Experience
Traveling Through Jim Crow America.
From the National Museum of African-American History and Culture
Cars
In the 1950s, the automobile industry was booming. More and more families owned at least one car a . Along with the increased freedom of the family car came problems— roads not designed to accomodate so many cars became clogged with traffic, and with poor road design, (and no seat belts) traffic injuries and fatalities were increasing every year. In 1956, President Eisenhower signed Federal Aid Highway Act, spurring the completion of America’s vast interstate highway system— making cross-country travel easier than ever, but also, changing America’s vast network of small towns forever.
Civil Rights
The most momentous changes that occurred in the years 1954-1956 were the stirrings of the Civil Rights movement. Two of the most momentous events of 1954 were the shocking murder of fifteen-year-old Emmett Till in 1954, and the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown Vs. The Board of Education. African Americans who fought against America’s cruel history of segregation were beginning to create increased public scrutiny and the beginning of progress toward dismantling the Jim Crow system.
1954 Zenith TV
Television
Broadcast television exploded between 1954 and 1956 with the number of local affiliates more than quadrupling in two years. Television sets transformed from expensive novelties to staples of every suburban living room, and the Western became one of the most popular genres of early television, cementing the image of the lone traveler on horseback.
McCarthyism
In 1954, America was transfixed by the Army-McCarthy hearings. The Cold War permeates every aspect of American life, and a growing suspicion of outsiders and foreigners fueled a new wariness among Americans who were already feeling displaced by a rapidly changing landscape of suburbanization and technological change.
Timeline
May 17th, 1954.
Brown vs. Board of Education Decision.
April, 1955
Roy Kroc opens his first McDonald’s Restaurant in Desplaines, Illinois.
April-June, 1954.
Army-McCarthy Hearings.
July, 1955
Walt Disney opens his theme park Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Annie Wilkins rides in the parade at Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming
November, 1954
Annie departs Minot, Maine.
October, 1955
The first transistor radio is produced. The Hyatt Hotel, Los Angeles is the first hotel built outside an airport.
January, 1955
Marian Anderson is the first African American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
March, 1956
Annie, Tarzan, and Depeche Toi arrive in North Hollywood, California.