Ruth and the Green Book by Gwen Strauss

Ruth and the Green Book by Gwen Strauss

The picture book inspiration for the Academy Award-winning film The Green Book

Ruth was so excited to take a trip in her family's new car! In the early 1950s, few African Americans could afford to buy cars, so this would be an adventure. But she soon found out that Black travelers weren't treated very well in some towns. Many hotels and gas stations refused service to Black people. Daddy was upset about something called Jim Crow laws . . .



Finally, a friendly attendant at a gas station showed Ruth's family The Green Book. It listed all of the places that would welcome Black travelers. With this guidebook--and the kindness of strangers--Ruth could finally make a safe journey from Chicago to her grandma's house in Alabama.



Ruth's story is fiction, but The Green Book and its role in helping a generation of African American travelers avoid some of the indignities of Jim Crow are historical fact.

Calvin Alexander Ramsey grew raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and Roxboro, North Carolina. He is an Atlanta-based writer, photographer, and folk art painter. Calvin has resided in New York City, Santa Monica, California, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the United States, in addition to being a year-round resident of Martha's Vineyard. The Virgin Islands of St. Croix Croix and Saint. Croix John was a member of the Robert Woodruff Library Special Collections Advisory Board at Emory University in Atlanta.

He's also a Martin Luther King, Jr. Drum Major for Justice Award winner. New York City, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, San Francisco, Valdez, Alaska, Omaha, Nebraska, Baltimore, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina have all seen his plays. Bricktop, The Musical; The Green Book; Damaged Virtues; Canada Lee; Sherman Town, Baseball, Apple Pie, and The Klan; Enlightenment; Sister Soldiers; Kentucky Avenue; Somewhere In My Lifetime; Johnny Mercer: A Man and His Music, a musical tribute to the author of Moon River and others; and The Age of Possibilities are among his works. The Last Mule of Gee's Bend and Ruth and the Green Book are two of his children's books.

He has three children, all of whom are also writers.