African American Travel in Mid-Twentieth-Century New York State
Students: Carlene Bermann, Tucker Broadbooks, Olivia Fottrell, David Gain, Mary Johnson, Wilkes Jordan, David Rush, Caitlin Snyder, Collin Sovie, Sybil Tubbs, Katherine Ventura, John York
Faculty Advisor: Cynthia Falk
This poster presentation highlights research conducted during the Spring 2022 semester into the landscape—both extant and vanished—of African American travel in upstate New York in the twentieth century. This project, including mapping and identification of extant resources, is being undertaken by graduate students at the Cooperstown Graduate Program, SUNY Oneonta, enrolled in Cindy Falk’s Historic Preservation course. It explores upstate New York’s African American communities and the businesses residents developed to support travelers.
Research relies heavily on listings in Victor Green’s Green Book and exploration of the current landscape to determine what elements of the built environment of mid twentieth-century African American travel still survive in places like Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Niagara Falls, and Buffalo. Preliminary research suggests that as the interstate highway system replaced railroads and local roads as the primary means of transportation, the urban renewal projects highways generated largely erased the thriving African American communities that previously served Black travelers.