Colorado Springs stop in Black Motorist 'Green Book' designated National Historic Landmark

Many African-Americans traveled out west for education for their children, better jobs, and to be recognized as citizens with the same rights as their white counterparts, said Leah Witherow, curator of history for the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.

While Black people who traveled west did not encounter Jim Crow segregation like in the South where it was enshrined into law, Witherow said they still faced “de jure” discrimination where segregation was carried out in practice.

“And so instead you had to find out where you could work, where you could eat, where you could go to school, where you could worship all by word of mouth,” Witherow said.

“Certain neighborhoods weren't open to people of color in Colorado Springs, in Denver, in Pueblo. And we know that this did a lot of harm.”

Today, 80% of The Green Book listings–including homes, night clubs, beauty parlors, and taxi services–are gone or completely beyond recognition, according to Candacy Taylor, author of the book "Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America.” Of the brick-and-mortar Green Book locations that still exist, Taylor said, only between three and five percent remain in operation.

A big misunderstanding about how racism worked in America, Taylor said, is that the Jim Crow south was the most dangerous place for Black Americans. However, there were more “sundown towns” – places that were life-threatening for Black travelers to be after dark – in the west and the midwest than in the south. This was due in part to the lack of Black residents outside of the south, she said.

“The Green Book was more than just a travel guide,” Taylor said. “It’s a great resource on how to understand the resiliency and integrity of the Black community.”

Husband-and-wife architectural historians Tom and Laurie Simmons submitted the application for the National Historic Site designation in 2024 through a History Colorado grant.

The National Historic Landmark application for Dr. Moore’s home has been “...one of the most interesting and important projects I think we’ve done in our career as historians,” Tom Simmons said.
 

“This is a very uncertain and kind of perilous time for this type of historical research,” Tom Simmons said, referring to the documentation of Black history and the history of people of color in America.

The Underrepresented Communities Grant to continue the African American Travel Site project that was awarded to History Colorado in January of this year to continue landmarking some of these Green Book locations face an uncertain future due to federal funding cuts by the Trump Administration, Simmons said.

The National Historic Landmark designation for Dr. Moore’s house is significant because traditionally, landmarks and historic preservation focused on the history of white American history in the United States, he said.

“And the idea, in much more recent years… is to look at those areas of history that haven't been recognized and to recognize them as being a part of the full history of the United States,” Simmons said. “And that's what this project represented.”

Colorado houses 29 National Historic Landmarks, according to the National Parks Service, which is in the process of updating its website to include recent designations. Nationally, there are more than 2,600 landmarks including buildings, sites, structures, and districts designated for historic preservation.

Among the benefits of the designation for the Moore home are incentives for its current owners to write off any construction improvements as a tax credit, a benefit in Colorado but not all states, according to Simmons.

Next May, the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum will commemorate Dr. Moore’s story in its “Freedom to Thrive: The American Experiment in Colorado Springs” exhibit. The installation will focus on people who fought to make change in Colorado Springs.