Mia Bay is the author of To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells and The White Image in the Black Mind, and coauthor of Freedom on My Mind: A History of African Americans, with Documents. She is Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania.
In Traveling Black, Mia Bay’s superb history of mobility and
resistance, the question of literal movement becomes a way to
understand the civil rights movement writ large…Bay…is an elegant
storyteller, laying out the stark stakes at every turn while also
showing how discrimination wasn’t just a matter of crushing
predictability but often, and more insidiously, a haphazard jumble
of risks…Her excellent book deepens our understanding of not just
where we are but how we got here.
*New York Times*
American identity is inextricably linked to freedom of movement.
But for much of the nation’s history, black Americans have been
barred from fully enjoying this freedom…Based on firsthand accounts
and comprehensive archival research, Traveling Black details the
manifest ways in which black Americans responded to limitations on
their mobility.
*Smithsonian*
Meticulously examines how, with the arrival of each successive form
of transportation technology—from those stagecoaches and trains to
cars to buses to planes—there was hope on the part of African
Americans (and their allies) that the invention would result in a
fairer and more equitable system. But each time, white supremacy
found its way into the new sphere.
*Car and Driver*
Takes readers on a journey through the history of segregated travel
to travel issues faced by contemporary African Americans…Bay
provides a detailed historical account of the experiences of
African American travelers…A [deep] examination of the history of
legal changes pertaining to segregation in transportation.
*Technology and Culture*
A deep dive into the history of Black resistance to travel
segregation…Bay offers a wealth of detail, reminding readers that
for every Rosa Parks there are thousands of less famous people
engaged in the same struggle, all worthy of having their stories
told.
*Christian Century*
Fantastic…both a richly detailed history of travel and
transportation from the late nineteenth century to the 1960s that
centers the experiences of Black travelers, and a deeply researched
history of resistance to discrimination that brings to light those
travelers’ active and ongoing efforts to demand equal treatment…Bay
urges us to rethink our histories of this era in order to
acknowledge a much longer and more extensive pattern of resistance
than previously known.
*Jotwell*
Important and disturbing…Filled with vivid first-person accounts,
Traveling Black is a superb history that captures a shameful aspect
of the American story.
*New York Journal of Books*
A well-guided scholarly journey through Black travel experiences
from the antebellum period to the present…Effectively organized,
carefully argued, and meticulously researched, Traveling Black
makes a significant contribution to the literature by tracing how
the struggle over segregated travel ultimately led to the
desegregation of all public spaces—one of the most important
achievements of the civil rights movement.
*Southwestern Historical Quarterly*
Bay gives us an insightful history of travel segregation for Black
people from the late 19th century to the 1960s…You’ll come away
from Bay’s book with the realization that for every Rosa
Parks…there were countless and unknown Black men and women in
segregated America who lived and traveled with determination,
resistance, and dignity.
*Fodor’s Travel*
Disturbing and absorbing…From stagecoaches to iron horses to
Cadillacs to the unfriendly skies, Black people in the U.S. have
never been truly free to traverse the open road…Bay elevates the
importance of the Black right to mobility in the struggle for civil
rights. Not simply a record of oppression, the book also
illuminates the determined spirit that underpins the fight for
Black equality across the country, exploring the methods that Black
people have used to subvert a racist system that persists today…A
book that shocks, shames, and enlightens.
*Kirkus Reviews (starred review)*
Mia Bay is one of America’s foremost intellectual and social
historians, and her deft treatment of the personal indignities and
structural inequities that beset African American travelers
rearranges our understanding of the racial dimensions of one of our
country’s most sacred rights—the right of free movement. In Bay’s
telling, Black travelers emerge as innovators and early adopters of
new transportation technologies, out of both social necessity and a
dogged commitment to resisting every limit placed on their right to
self-determination. She reminds us, as the best historians always
do, that for African Americans you cannot understand the
destination without sustained attention to the journey.
*Brittney Cooper, author of Eloquent Rage*
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*
One of the supposed hallmarks of a free democratic society is the
ability to travel without restriction. That has not been the case
for Black Americans. From slavery through Jim Crow and beyond they
faced a plethora of rules, formal and informal, that made travel a
daunting enterprise. Mia Bay is one of the outstanding historians
of her generation, and she asks crucial questions: Why were so many
of the early challenges to segregated travel brought by women? Why
was travel by train and bus such a problem for the racial
hierarchy, particularly in the South, and why did it become such a
focal point of resistance? Timely and well written, Traveling Black
offers a powerful new vision of the long arc of protest against
racial segregation in America.
*Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of
Monticello*
In America, freedom so often is ‘just another word for’ the right
to go where we want to go. Yet as Mia Bay reveals in her dynamic
history, African Americans have rarely enjoyed this right without
the strings—or stings—of discrimination, whether by law or custom,
intimidation, or outright violence. At the core of her story is the
struggle over human dignity itself. Bay takes us on a journey from
the caprices of the early color line in the antebellum North to the
harrowing experiences of ‘driving while Black’ today. Bay shows
that the civil rights movement has much deeper roots than many
imagine and its movements have long tracked the battle for safe and
equal access to the rights of passage. Traveling Black is well
worth the fare. Indeed, it is certain to become the new standard on
this important, and too often forgotten, history.
*Henry Louis Gates, Jr., author of Stony the Road*
Traveling Black is a stunning achievement that promises to
transform our understanding of the character and importance of
segregated travel. Based on prodigious research, its richly
textured and insightful narrative takes us on a fascinating and
eye-opening journey of discovery along the roads and rails of Jim
Crow America.
*Raymond Arsenault, author of Freedom Riders*
A comprehensive survey of the relationship between travel
restrictions, racial segregation, and civil rights in America.
*Publishers Weekly*
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