Floyd Cooper Memorial Children’s Story Hour: Ruth and The Green Book, with Andy Laties and Puppets

Bring your kids to this reading of the late Eastononian children’s book author’s inspiration for the Academy Award-winning film, The Green Book. The story is fiction, but The Green Book’s role in helping a generation of African American travelers avoid some of the indignities of Jim Crow is true history.

The picture book that was the inspiration for the Academy Award-winning film The Green Book

Ruth was so excited to take a trip in her family’s new car! In the early 1950s, few African Americans could afford to buy cars, so this would be an adventure. But she soon found out that black travelers weren’t treated very well in some towns. Many hotels and gas stations refused service to black people. Daddy was upset about something called Jim Crow laws . . .

Finally, a friendly attendant at a gas station showed Ruth’s family The Green Book. It listed all of the places that would welcome black travelers. With this guidebook―and the kindness of strangers―Ruth could finally make a safe journey from Chicago to her grandma’s house in Alabama.

Floyd Cooper received a Coretta Scott King Award for his illustrations in The Blacker the Berry and a Coretta Scott King Honor for Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea and I Have Heard of a Land. Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mr. Cooper received a degree in fine arts from the University of Oklahoma and, after graduating, worked as an artist for a major greeting card company. He lived for many years in Easton, PA. His many beloved books form a lasting legacy.