A few weeks ago, Matthew Dickey sent me a picture of Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe in Boston (on left), told me that it was in the Green Book and left me to it. I am ashamed to say that I didn’t know what The Green Book was, despite the fact that it is not obscure at all (and the film won many Oscars in 2019 including best picture). My privilege as a white woman meant that I was surprised that these travel guidebooks even existed (used by 2 million people by 1962), blind to the dangers that black people encountered while traveling in the Jim Crow era and the need and desire to travel despite those dangers. This discrimination and violence hasn’t gone away even though the Green Book has.

I didn’t illustrate this building at the time because I didn’t want to share a history that is so obviously not mine. But my ignorance is mine, as is my ability to seek out and learn more about it...a fact that is at the forefront of my mind this past week because of the realities of racial discrimination that are happening right now, and have been forever.

My privilege continues to smack me in the face. I’m learning, I’m continuing to learn and I’m grateful that I can learn from historians like Candacy Taylor who has been researching the Green Book since 2013 and wrote the book, “Overground Railroad: The Green Book and The Roots of Black Travel in America” (one aspect of her multidisciplinary project), which I look forward to reading when it comes in the mail.

Back to the building: this is Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe in Boston, listed in the 1947 Green Book. It was opened in 1927 by Charlie Poulos who shortly after partnered with Christi Manjourides and was run by the Manjourides family until 2014 (because all four siblings who ran the restaurant were in their 70’s and ready to retire).

Arthur Manjourides gave an interview to Christopher Hughes of Boston Magazine (linked on my website in bio); it’s a sweet interview and worth a quick read, but here is a quote: “We [served] mostly black entertainers like Duke Ellington and Sammy Davis Jr. This was all the way up until the ‘60s. Most hotels and restaurants would not serve black people. It was a very prejudiced town. I’d say 99 percent of our customers were black. Because we served the black community, a lot of white people wouldn’t come in. In the ‘70s, one of our regular customers had a sister come into town and she wouldn’t step into the place because we served black people. That’s not that long ago.”

Sources:

Boston Magazine, Arthur Manjourides Reminisces About Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe

Cultural Historian Candacy Taylor, website

Amazon, “Overground Railroad: The Green Book and The Roots of Black Travel in America”

Wikipedia, Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe

The National Herald, The Greek Connection to the Oscar Winning The Green Book