According to the NYT: 2020 Is the Summer of the Road Trip. Unless You’re Black.

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If there’s one thing the people behind car and R.V. companies, state tourism boards, national and state parks and hotels agree on right now, it’s that the summer of 2020 will be the summer of the road trip.

With the country reopening, travel industry experts say people are planning short trips to destinations relatively close to home. By driving they can control the number of people they interact with, how many stops they make on the way and whether to take a detour or not — all things they can’t control on a plane.

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For many black travelers, however, the road trip has long conjured fear, not freedom. Victor Hugo Green published the first version of his now-famous “Green Book” in 1936; it listed towns, motels, restaurants and homes where black drivers were welcome and would be safe. At the time, state and local laws enforced racial segregation, primarily in the South, a racial caste system known as Jim Crow that was legally undone by the passage of Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s. The “Green Book” was updated and published through the 1960s and inspired the 2018 film of the same name that won an Oscar but was widely criticized for making a white character’s emotional journey its focus.

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Following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of the police, and Ahmaud Arbery at the hands of armed white residents, and coming on the heels of the coronavirus and its heavy toll — both in terms of health and employment — on African-Americans, some black travelers worry that they will face even more discrimination on the road this summer.

“Travel is supposed to be a reprieve from all the hard things we are usually dealing with, but it often doesn’t feel that way for us,” said Damon Lawrence, co-founder of Homage Hospitality Group, a hotel company that draws inspiration for its properties from black history and caters particularly to black travelers. “Having to constantly be on high alert adds extra anxiety, and it’s always hard, but right now, it’s an exhausting task to even leave the house, let alone go on a road trip.”

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But Ms. Parker, 32, said that she can’t imagine just being able to pack up and go without a plan, like some white families might be able to do.

So for the last six months, she has been meticulously planning their journey. She knows which towns her family will stop in, which they’ll drive straight through, and which they’ll avoid entirely. She also knows which stretches of the road her children won’t be allowed to drink juice or water on, to avoid bathroom breaks in towns where the family could encounter racism or violence based on their race.

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 a way, Facebook groups for black travelers and group chats have become the 21st-century version of the “Green Book.” People talk about where they’ve been and follow in each other's footsteps, sharing where they were treated well and where they felt uncomfortable or unsafe. Many stay in the same hotels, eat at the same restaurants or skip the same towns.

“We go where our friends and family have gone because we know that it’s safe,” said Dianelle Rivers-Mitchell, founder of Black Girls Travel Too, a group tour company for black women. “During this moment, with the protests as a backdrop, and as our community deals with how we were harder hit by coronavirus and we risk facing even more discrimination based on that, I just don’t see road-tripping being it for us.”

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Ms. Jackson, 42, said that she feels anxious when she passes through areas — including Texas’s Williamson and Denton counties — where she’s had unnerving interactions with white police officers.

“I always feel worried on the road in some counties because I’ve been stopped for no reason,” she said. “I always pray and say, ‘OK, Lord please protect me. I don’t want to end up in jail for no reason.’ It’s always in the back of my mind that I could be the next Sandra Bland.”

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Jeff Jenkins, a travel blogger who runs Chubby Diaries, a travel company for plus-size people, said that his anxiety about being targeted by the police ran so deep that it affected his choice of car. The recent killings of black men by the police have only added to his anxiety.

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