VIDEO: Playwright Calvin Alexander Ramsey's Documentary THE GREEN BOOK CHRONICLES Tells Of Getting Around Jim Crow

In the days when America was plagued by Jim Crow laws that legalized segregation, African Americans traveling through the country needed to know where they were permitted to eat, sleep or even be out at night.

This was especially problematic for actors, musicians and other people in show business who would spend months on the road traveling from gig to gig. Even big stars like Ella Fitzgerald and John Coltrane were restricted from staying at the hotels or eating in the clubs where they would perform.

New York City mailman Victor H. Green saw a solution, and in 1936 he created and published the first yearly edition of "The Negro Motorist Green Book," commonly referred to as just "The Green Book."

For thirty years, "The Green Book" supplied information on which restaurants, hotels and businesses would serve black customers, as well as other necessary information about curfews and other Jim Crow laws.

Playwright Calvin Alexander Ramsey's THE GREEN BOOK, was created from interviews with many elderly African Americans who recalled emotions of peril and fear while traveling which. The play had its 2011 world premiere at Atlanta's Theatrical Outfit and went on to win recognition as a finalist in the 12th Annual Last Frontier Theater Conference held in Valdez, Alaska.

He wrote about the subject again in the children's book "Ruth and The Green Book," about a young girl whose family uses the book on a trip from their home in Chicago to visit her grandma in Alabama.

Ramsey's newest project is a full-length documentary about the history of "The Green Book" with commentary from those who used it to survive while on the road.

He talks about the project in the video, which is followed by the documentary's trailer.

Visit calvinalexanderramseysr.com and greenbookchronicles.com.