Montana in the Green Book

by Kate Hampton, Community Preservation Coordinator

Placer Hotel Construction, Helena, Montana, December 9, 1912.
Catalog #953-553

Between 1936 and 1967, Victor H. Green & Company published The Negro Motorist Green Book, which offered listings of lodgings, restaurants, service stations, and recreation opportunities for African American travelers. The first two issues – 1936 and 1937 – limited listings to New York state. By 1939, however, the book aided travelers in places across the country. That year, the only Montana entry was that of Mrs. M. Stitt at 204 South Park in Helena, whose two-story boarding house offered “tourist home” accommodations. Mrs. Stitt died in 1939, but her family continued to advertise under her name in the Green Book through 1951. In 1956 and 1957, through the last issue in mid-1960s, more Montana lodgings advertised in the Green Book, including places in Billings, Butte, Livingston, Missoula, and East Glacier. The 1964 Civil Rights Act, at least in theory, made the Green Book unnecessary, and publication ended shortly thereafter. 

Follow this link to a map that includes information about each of the Montana establishments listed in the Green Book. 

For a spreadsheet of Montana listings in the Green Book, click here.

For more information about the African American experience in Montana, please visit the Montana Historical Society’s Montana’s African American Heritage Resources website.