The Library of Congress recently posted online photographs and taped interviews of the owners of surviving African American businesses for Candacy Taylor’s Negro Motorist Green Book research.
One of the interviewees is Allen Threatt of the Threatt Filling Station along Route 66 near Luther, Oklahoma.
The collection, found here, includes interview subjects from Miami, Florida; Kansas City, Missouri; New Orleans; Montgomery, Alabama; St. Louis; Atlanta; Nashville; and Columbia and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The American Folklife Center, which gave Taylor a grant to aid with her initial research of the Green Book, stated about the collection:
Candacy Taylor documented contemporary business owners and employees who work for more than a dozen still-active businesses that were listed in The Green Book, a historically significant travel guide published between 1937 and 1967. The Green Book listed businesses — e.g., restaurants, hotels, barbershops, taverns, drug stores, and garages — that welcomed African American customers. Only 3% of the 9,500 businesses listed in The Green Book are still in operation, and Taylor traveled across the United States to interview their current owners and employees. This project was done with an Archie Green Fellowship from the Library of Congress American Folklife Center.
The Library of Congress states Taylor’s media “explore the histories of these ongoing establishments, their strategies for staying in business, and the business’s current relationships with their changing communities.”
As for the Threatt Filling Station, here’s the summary of the Allen Threatt interview:
Reverend Allen Threatt’s grandfather opened the Threatt Service Station in 1915 in Luther, Oklahoma. The station is situated right on Route 66. Although it was not listed in the Green Book, it was one of the few black-owned service stations on the Mother Road. Since nearly half of all counties on Route 66 were “sundown towns”– (i.e., all-white towns that banned black people after dark)–black-friendly establishments such as Threatt’s were rare and very important to black Americans. Starting at the age of 12, Reverend Threatt pumped gas and cleaned windshields at the service station. The family also sold bread and canned goods at the station: Threatt compares it to “a modern-day 7-11.” The family had 160 acres of land, which they farmed. The filling station was built on their land, and the building was constructed of rocks quarried on their property. Threatt’s uncle was a very successful farmer who had fields throughout Luther, Oklahoma, and who had white employees. The Threatt family also ran a nightclub, which was located right next to the service station. It was called “The County Line” and it was very popular: on weekends, patrons’ cars were parked along the road for two miles on either side of club.
Here’s the one-hour interview itself:
Taylor wrote a definitive and searing history of the Negro Motorist Green Book, titled “Overground Railroad” (Amazon link). Our review is here.
(Vintage image from the Threatt Filling Station near Luther, Oklahoma, via the Library of Congress)