Navigating racialized tourism spaces: Apartheid South Africa’s ‘Green Books’
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/bgss-2025-0009Keywords
apartheid, historical geography, racialized landscapes, tourism geography, South AfricaAbstract
Racism and racial discrimination in tourism are attracting growing interest. the aim is to contribute to an emergent historical geographical scholarship on racism and racial discrimination in tourism. The greatest progress in exploring the historical bases and legacies of racism in tourism surrounds the Jim Crow era of segregation in the United States which has generated a growing literature. This study is novel as it examines the case of apartheid South Africa. The research represents a contribution to the sparse international literature from destinations outside of the United States concerning the geographical impress of racial discrimination in tourism and of how the racialized populations both countered and navigated a discriminatory landscape of exclusion. It is argued that guidebooks produced in the 1960s by the South African Institute of Race Relations served similar purposes to the well-documented ‘Green Books’ in the USA.
References
Abramova, O. (2024). Discrimination on sharing economy platforms: A systematic review of cases and coping strategies. Journal of Business and Management Studies, 6(3): 69-84.
Alderman, D.H. & Bottone, E. (2024). On doing justice to Black mobility and movement in the classroom. The Geography Teacher, 21(1): 25-32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19338341.2024.2315528.
Alderman, D.H. & Inwood, J. (2014). Toward a pedagogy of Jim Crow: A geographic reading of The Green Book. In: Estaville, L.E., Montalvo, E.J. & Akiwumi, F.A. (Eds.), Teaching ethnic geography in the 21st century, 68-87, National Council for Geographic Education.
Alderman, D.H. & Inwood, J. (2016). Mobility as antiracism works: The ‘hard driving’ of NASCAR’s Wendell Scott. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 106(3): 597-611. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2015.118339.
Alderman, D.H. & Inwood, J. (2021). Historical geographies and archived subjects. In: Wilson, H.F. & Darling, J. (Eds), Research ethics for human geography: A Handbook for Students, 192-201, SAGE.
Alderman, D. & Modlin Jr. E.A. (2014). The historical geography of racialized landscapes. In: Buckley, G.L. & Cohen, C.E. (Eds.), North American Odyssey: Historical Geographers for the Twenty-first Century, Rowman & Littlefield.
Beinart, W., & Dubow, S. (1995). Introduction: The historiography of segregation and apartheid. In: Beinart, W. & Dubow, S. (Eds.), Segregation and Apartheid in Twentieth Century South Africa, Psychology Press.
Berman, G. & Paradies, Y. (2008). Racism, disadvantage and multiculturalism: Towards effective anti-racist praxis. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 45(16): 435-457. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0149870802302272.
Bezuidenhout, V. (2010). Separate amenities: Topographics of recreational spaces in South Africa. Masters (Fine Arts) Dissertation, University of Cape Town.
Bonds, A. & Inwood, J. (2016). Beyond white privilege: Geographies of white supremacy and settler colonialism. Progress in Human Geography, 40(6): 715-733. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132515613166.
Bolles, L. (2024). Race. In: Jafari, J. & Xiao, H. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Tourism, 851-852, Springer Nature.
Bonnett, A. (1999). Anti-Racism: Key Ideas. Routledge.
Bottone, E.M. (2020a). The ‘Green Book’ and a Black Sense of Movement: Black Mobilities and Motilities During the Jim Crow Era. PhD dissertation, University of Tennessee.
Bottone, E.M. (2020b). “Please mention the Green Book”: The Negro Motorist Green Book as critical GIS. In: Travis, C., Ludlow, F. & Gyuris, F. (Eds.), Historical Geography, GIScience and Textual Analysis: Landscapes of Time and Place, Springer.
Bottone, E.M. (2023) ‘Your home – away from home’: Tourist homes and hospitality as resistance. Tourism Geographies, 25(4): 1004-1025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2022.2032311.
Briscoe, J.I. (2024). Just what they have been looking for: The significance, importance and journey of the Negro Motorist Green Book in the state of South Carolina and the City of Columbia in the Twentieth Century. PhD dissertation (History), Liberty University, Lynchburg, Virginia, USA.
Butler, R. (2024). Never look back? Revisiting the past. Annals of Tourism Research, 104: 103690.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2023.103690.
Byron, C., Blytheway-Jackson, E., & Peters, K. (2024). Navigating the political geographies of (extra) partial pasts in historical research. In: Menga, F., Nagel, C., Grove, K. & Peters, K. (Eds.), Political Geography in Practice: Theories, Approaches, Methodologies, Springer.
Cheer, J.M. (2018). Geographies of marginalization: Encountering modern slavery in tourism. Tourism Geographies, 20(4): 728-732. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2018.1477.171.
Christopher, A.J. (1990). Apartheid and urban segregation levels in South Africa. Urban Studies, 27(3): 421-440. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00420989020080361.
Craggs, R. (2016). Historical and archival methods. In: Clifford, N., Cope, M., Gillespie, T. & French, S. (Eds.), Key Methods in Geography, SAGE.
Dillette, A. (2021). Black travel tribes: an exploration of race and travel in America. In: Pforr, C.,Volgger, M. & Dowling, R. (Eds.), Consumer Tribes in Tourism: Contemporary Perspectives on Special Interest Tourism, Springer Nature.
Dillette, A., & Benjamin, S. (2017). Traveling while Black; Storytelling through Twitter. Critical Tourism Studies Proceedings Vol. 2017: Article 110.
Dillette, A., Benjamin, S., & Alderman, D. (2024). Traveling to escape, resist and belong: Centering black experiences within tourism scholarship. Tourism Geographies, 26(1) : 1-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2024.2305869.
Dlamini, J.S.T. (2020). Safari Nation: a Social History of the Kruger National Park. Ohio University Press.
Dönmez, F.G. & Aylan, S. (2022). Social-psychological background of discrimination and its reflections in tourism. In: Gursoy, D. & Çelik, S. (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Social Psychology of Tourism, Routledge.
Dubow, S. (1998). Placing ‘race’ in South African history. In: Lamont, W. (Ed.), Historical Controversies and Historians, UCL Press.
Dubow, S. (2017). New approaches to high apartheid and anti-apartheid. South African Historical Journal, 69(2): 304-329. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02582473.2017.1330896.
Duffy, L.N., Pinckney, H.P., Benjamin, S. & Mowatt, R. (2019). A critical discourse analysis of racial violence in South Carolina, USA: Implications for traveling while Black. Current Issues in Tourism, 22(19): 2430-2446. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2018.1494143.
Elias, A., Mansouri, F. & Paradies, Y. (2021). Countering racism: Challenges and progress in anti-racism efforts. In: Elias, A., Mansouri, F. & Paradies, Y. (Eds.), Racism in Australia Today, Palgrave-Macmillan.
Ellefsen, R., Banafsheh, A. & Sandberg, S. (2022). Resisting racism in everyday life: From ignoring to confrontation and protest. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 45(16): 435-457. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2022.2094716.
Fields, D. & Raymond, E.L. (2021). Racialized geographies of housing financialization. Progress in Human Geography, 45(6): 1625-1645. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325211009299.
Fleishman, Z. (2023). ‘Strange things happen when the lights are low’: The South African night in Drum, 1951-1960. Journal of Southern African Studies, 49(4): 529-551. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2023.2307230.
Floyd, M.F. (1998). Getting beyond marginality and ethnicity: The challenge for race and ethnic studies in leisure research. Journal of Leisure Research, 30(1): 3-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.1998.11949816.
Hall, M.R-S. (2014). The negro traveller’s guide to a Jim Crow South: Negotiating racialized landscapes during a dark period in United States cultural history, 1936-1967. Postcolonial Studies, 17(3): 307-319. DOI: https://doi/org/10.1080/13688790.2014.987898.
Härkönen, E. (2021). Discrimination of patrons in tourist establishments. In: Hashimoto, A., Härkönen, E. & Nkyi, E. (Eds.), Human Rights Issues in Tourism. Taylor & Francis.
Hellmann, E. (1979). Fifty years of the South African Institute of Race Relations. In: Hellmann, E. & Lever, H. (Eds.), Race Relations in South Africa, 1929-1979, St Martin’s Press.
Higginbotham, F.M. (1994) Sins from the past and lessons for the future: Eliminating apartheid in South African public accommodations and the challenge to an enlightened judiciary. Boston University International Law Journal, 12(1): 1-56.
Horrell, M. (1968). A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1967. South African Institute of Race Relations.
Hotel Guide Association (1965). Guide to the Hotels of South Africa and Adjacent Territories. The Hotel Guide Association.
House of Assembly Debates (1965). 14 May cols. 6059-6060.
Hudson, S., So, K.K.F., Meng, F., Cárdenas, D., & Li, J. (2020). Racial discrimination in tourism: The case of African-American travellers in South Carolina. Current Issues in Tourism, 23(4): 438-451.
DOI: https://doi/org/10.1080/13683500.2018.1516743.
Jackson, A.T. (2019). Remembering Jim Crow, again – Critical representations of African American experiences of travel and leisure at U.S. National Park sites. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 25(7): 671-688. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2018.1544920.
Jackson, A.T. (2020). Heritage, Tourism and Race: The Other Side of Leisure. Routledge.
Jamerson, W.T. (2016). Race and critical tourism studies: An analytical literature review. Sociology Compass, 10(11): 1038-1045. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/soc.4.12418.
Kalous, I.D. (2021). Navigating hostile terrain with the Green Book: How a travel guide mobilized African Americans during segregation. JAAAS: Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies, 3(1): 11-31. DOI: https://doi/org/10.47060/jaaas.v3i1.53.
Kennedy, R.A. (2013). Automobility, Hospitality, African American Tourism, and Mapping Victor H. Green’s Negro Motorist Green Book. MA Thesis (Geography), East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Keyter, C. (1962). Holiday and Travel Facilities for Non-Whites in South Africa. RR96/62. South African Institute of Race Relations.
Khoo, C., Thakur, P., Mura, P., Je, J.S. & Yang, M.J.H. (Eds). (2025). Critical Inclusive tourism: Empowering Marginalized Groups. Routledge.
Killingray, D. (2024). Countering racial discrimination in Britain 1880s-1913.In: East, S., Redhead, G. & Williams, T. (Eds.), Anti-racism in Britain: Traditions, histories and trajectories c. 1880-present, Manchester University Press.
Kirkby, J. (2022). Sentiments of Segregation: The emotional politics of apartheid, c. 1948-1990. PhD Monograph (Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology), Lund University, Sweden.
Korstanje, M.E. (2022). Tourism, prejudice, stereotypes, and personal contact: Gordon Allport’s contribution to tourism research. In: Gursoy, D. & Çelik, S. (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Social Psychology of Tourism. Routledge.
Krige, S. (2014). Transnational race relations: Muriel Horrell’s journey toward understanding reserves and reservations in South Africa, Africa, and the United States. Amerikastudien/American Studies, 59(4): 501-518. DOI: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44071884
Lee, K.J. (2024). The myth of African American under-representation in nature tourism. Tourism Geographies, 26(1): 70-81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2023.2190159
Lee, K.J., & Scott, D. (2016). Bourdieu and African Americans’ park visitation: The case of Cedar Hill State Park in Texas. Leisure Sciences, 38(5): 424-440. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400. 2015.1127188
Lee, K.J. & Scott, D. (2017). Racial discrimination and African Americans’ travel behavior: The utility of habitus and vignette technique. Journal of Travel Research, 56(3): 381-392. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11177/0047287516643184
Li, S., Li, G., Law, R., & Paradies, Y. (2020). Racism in tourism reviews. Tourism Management, 80: 104100. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104100
Livengood, J.S. & Stodolska, M. (2004). The effects of discrimination and constraints negotiation on leisure behavior of American Muslims in the post September 11 America. Journal of Leisure Research, 36(2): 183-208. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2004.11950019
Luiz, J. (1998). The evolution and fall of the South African apartheid state: A political economy perspective. Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 26(2-3): 49-72. DOI: https://doi/org/10.5070/F7262-3016619
Memmi, A. (2000). Racism. University of Minneapolis Press.
Ndeke, A.K. (2022). Racism and tourism. In: Buhalis, D. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Tourism Management and Marketing, Edward Elgar.
Nethercote, M. (2022). Racialized geographies of home: Property, unhoming and other possible futures. Progress in Human Geography, 46(4): 935-959. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132522104480
Parks, S. (1969a). A Guide to Cape Town for Coloured People. South African Institute of Race Relations.
Parks, S. (1969b). A Guide to Cape Town for African People. South African Institute of Race Relations.
Parks, S. (1969c). A Guide to Cape Town for Coloured African and Indian People. South African Institute of Race Relations.
Pellicer, M. & Ranchhod, V. (2023). Understanding the effects of racial classification in apartheid South Africa. Journal of Development Economics, 160: 102988. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2022.102998.
Pellicer, M., Piraino, P. & Wegner, E. (2019). Perceptions of inevitability and demand for redistribution: Evidence from A survey experiment. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 159: 274-288. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.12.013.
Philipp, S.F. (1993). Racial differences in the perceived attractiveness of tourist destinations, interests and cultural resources. Journal of Leisure Research, 25(3): 290-304. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.1993.11969927.
Philipp, S.F. (1994). Race and tourism choice: a legacy of discrimination? Annals of Tourism Research, 21(3): 479-488. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-7383(94)90115-5.
Pirie, G.H. (2013). Automobile organizations driving tourism in pre-independence Africa. Journal of Tourism History, 5(1): 73-91. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1755182X.2012.758672.
Posel, D. (1991). The Making of Apartheid 1948-1961: Conflict and Compromise. Oxford University Press.
Posel, D. (2001a). Race as common sense: Racial classification in twentieth century South Africa. African Studies Review, 44(2): 87-113. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/525576.
Posel, D. (2001b). What’s in a name? Racial classifications under apartheid and their afterlife. Transformation, 47: 50-74.
Rallis, D. (1993). A Geographical History of Segregation in South Africa, 1652-1976. PhD dissertation (Geography), Pennsylvania State University, USA.
Rich, P. (1981). The South African Institute of Race Relations and the debate on ‘race relations’, 1929-1958. African Studies, 40 (1): 13-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00020188108707566.
Rogerson, C.M. (2020). Apartheid hotels: The rise and fall of the ‘non-White’ hotel in South Africa. In: Rogerson, J.M. & Visser, G. (Eds.), New Directions in South African Tourism Geographies, Springer.
Rogerson, C.M. (2025). Racism and discrimination in South Africa’s apartheid tourism landscape. Studia Periegetica, 47 (1). DOI: https://doi/org/10.58683/sp.2061.
Rogerson, C. M. & Rogerson, J.M. (2020). Racialized landscapes of tourism: From Jim Crow USA to apartheid South Africa. Bulletin of Geography: Socio-Economic Series, 48: 7-21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bog-2020-0010.
Rogerson, C.M. & Rogerson, J.M. (2021). Urban tourism under apartheid: The Johannesburg chapter. In: Rogerson, C.M. & Rogerson, J.M. (Eds.), Urban Tourism in the Global South: South African Perspectives, Springer.
Rogerson, C.M. & Rogerson, J.M. (2024a). Jim Crow and racialized tourism landscapes under apartheid. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 13(3): 664-672. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46222/ajhtl.19770720.551.
Rogerson, C.M. & Rogerson, J.M. (2024b). Black travel (im-)mobilities in South Africa: A case of historical urban restraint. Revistă Româna de Geografie Politică, 26(2): 61-77. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30892/rrgp.261101-378.
Rogerson, C.M. & Rogerson, J.M. (2025). Racial discrimination in tourism: The record of apartheid Cape Town. Modern Geográfia, 20(3): 47-67. DOI: https://doi/org/10.15170/MG.2025.20.03.03.
Rogerson, J.M. (2017). ‘Kicking sand in the face of apartheid’: Segregated beaches in South Africa. Bulletin of Geography: Socio-Economic Series, 35: 93-109. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/bog-2017-0007.
Ruhanen, L. & Whitford, M. (2018). Racism as an inhibitor to the organisational legitimacy of indigenous tourism businesses in Australia. Current Issues in Tourism, 21(15): 1728-1742. DOI: https://doi/org/10.1080/13683500.2016.1225698.
Savage, M. (1984). Pass laws and the disorganization and reorganization of the African population in South Africa. Paper 281 Second Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development in Southern Africa.
Seaton, E.K., Gee, G.C., Neblett, E. & Spanierman, L. (2018). New directions for racial discrimination research as inspired by the integrative model. American Psychologist, 73(6): 768-780. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000315.
Silva, P., & Butler-Adam, J. (1988). Terrae Incognitae: A Journey into the Unknown Lands of Domestic Tourism in South Africa. University of Durban-Westville Domestic Tourism Research Unit First Report.
Slocum, S. (Ed.) (2023). Inclusion in Tourism: Understanding Institutionalized Discrimination and Bias. Routledge.
South African Institute of Race Relations (1968). The South African Holiday Guide Especially for Africans, Indians and Coloured. South African Institute of Race Relations.
Suttner, S. (1966). Egoli: A Guide to Johannesburg for Africans. South African Institute of Race Relations.
Suttner, S. (1967). Egoli: A Guide to Johannesburg for Africans. South African Institute of Race Relations (2nd Ed).
Thakur, P., Mura, P., Je, J.S., Khoo, C. & Yang, M.J.H. (2023). Empowering marginalized groups for inclusive tourism: a call for critical studies. Tourism Recreation Research, 48(6): 813-819. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2023.2268490.
Turner, R.L. (2020). Black travel and presence in the building of South Africa. Current History, 119 (814), 197-199. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48614541.
Washburne, R.F. (1978). Black under-participation in wildlife recreation: Alternative explanations. Leisure Sciences, 1: 175-189. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01490407809512880.
Webster, A. (2018). Racial Liberalism and the South African Institute of Race Relations, 1929-1950. MA (History) dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam.
Webster, A. (2020). Transatlantic knowledge: Race relations, social science and native education in early twentieth-century South Africa. South African Historical Journal, 72(3): 366-385. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02582473.2020.1827019.
Wollheim, O.D. (1969). Introduction. In: Parks, S.M., A Guide to Cape Town for Coloured People, v., South African Institute of Race Relations.
Zinkel, B. (2019). Apartheid and Jim Crow: Drawing lessons from South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation commission. Journal of Dispute Resolution, 1, Article 16: 229-255.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Prof. Christian M. Rogerson

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Title, logo and layout of journal Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series are reserved trademarks of Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series.Stats
Number of views and downloads: 2
Number of citations: 0