TRAVELING BLACK: A Story of Race and Resistance, featuring Dr. Mia Bay in conversation with Dr. Raymond Arsenault.

“This extraordinary book is a powerful addition to the history of travel segregation. Traveling Black reveals how travel discrimination transformed over time from segregated trains to buses and Uber rides. Mia Bay shows that Black mobility has always been a struggle.”—Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist

A riveting, character-rich account of racial segregation in America that reveals just how central travel restrictions were to the creation of Jim Crow laws—and why “traveling Black” has been at the heart of the quest for racial justice ever since.

Why have white supremacists and Black activists been so focused on Black mobility? From Plessy v. Ferguson to #DrivingWhileBlack, African Americans have fought for over a century to move freely around the United States. Curious as to why so many cases contesting the doctrine of “separate but equal” involved trains and buses, Mia Bay went back to the sources with some basic questions: How did travel segregation begin? Why were so many of those who challenged it in court women? How did it move from one form of transport to another, and what was it like to be caught up in this web of contradictory rules?

From stagecoaches and trains to buses, cars, and planes, Traveling Black explores when, how, and why racial restrictions took shape and brilliantly portrays what it was like to live with them.

This program is offered free of charge. The Mark Twain House & Museum and The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center will share donations during this program. Thank you for being part of supporting two neighboring museums with your gift; your generosity is deeply appreciated. REGISTER HERE!

Copies of Traveling Black will be available for purchase through the Mark Twain Store. Proceeds benefit The Mark Twain House & Museum. Books will ship after the event. We regret that we cannot ship outside of the U.S. at this time.

Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are made possible in part by support from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts, and the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign and its Travelers Arts Impact Grant program, with major support from The Travelers Foundation. For more information call 860-247-0998 or visit marktwainhouse.org