Sarah Eames: On the Bright Side: SUNY Oneonta program director finalist for NAACP Image Award

Mar. 6—Gretchen Sorin, director of SUNY Oneonta's Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies, is one of five finalists for a 2021 NAACP Image Award for her book, "Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights."

"The fact that they nominated it was nice," Sorin said. "The fact that it's a finalist is even better."

Recognized as the nation's preeminent multicultural awards show from an African American perspective, the NAACP Image Awards celebrate the outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts and those who promote social justice through their creative work, according to the organization.

Sorin is one of five nominees for the award in the Outstanding Literary Work — Non-Fiction category. Her work joins Elijah Cummings' "We're Better Than This" and "A Promised Land" by Barack Obama in the top five.

Sorin's work explores the network of businesses around the United States — hotels, motels, restaurants, bars and drug stores — that provided services to Black motorists in mid-20th-century America, a time when segregation severely limited their access to trains, buses and other forms of public transportation.

"These were places where people could go and feel comfortable and welcome," Sorin said

While Jim Crow laws that prevented African Americans from using the same services and accommodations as white people dominated the American South beginning in the late 19th century, states in the north were not immune from the segregative practice.

Resorts catering specifically to African American travelers began to pop up throughout the country, Sorin said, including Highland Beach in Maryland, a town founded by Charles Douglass, a Civil War veteran and son of Frederick Douglass, and Idlewild, Michigan, a spot once known as "the Black Eden" that was frequented by the likes of Madam C.J. Walker, W.E.B. DuBois, Aretha Franklin and the Temptations throughout its heyday.

"This has been a substantial research project of mine for 20 years, on and off," Sorin said.

Sorin said much of her work was inspired by the 1936 publication of the "Negro Motorist Green-Book," which listed alphabetically by state the businesses that would accommodate and welcome Black vacationers. Most of the featured establishments were east of the Mississippi River, Sorin said, but a considerable number dotted the West Coast as well.

"Driving While Black" was published in 2020 by W.W. Norton & Company, Sorin said. The paperback edition was released earlier this year.

Sorin collaborated with Emmy-winning director Ric Burns to adapt her book into a two-hour PBS documentary titled "Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America."

Sorin said she had just launched a national book tour when the coronavirus pandemic hit about a year ago.

"I was in Kansas City when the shutdown came," she said. "The next stops in Seattle and LA were canceled. I did a show in Atlanta and only seven people were there."

As public presentations and discussions went virtual throughout the last year, Sorin said, she's fielded dozens of requests for online book talks. The bright spot of the pandemic-stalled book tour has been the ability to reach hundreds of readers that might not have attended in person.

"So far, I've done about 30 lectures, which is a lot more than I could've done if I was physically flying everywhere," she said.

An educator by trade, Sorin said she values the way her book has opened the eyes of many of her readers to the reality of racial injustice in America.

"The highlight of all of this has been the response," she said. "People have said, 'Oh, I didn't know...' and to see them make the connections between then and now — it's wonderful. It's terrific."

Sorin, a SUNY Distinguished Service Professor, serves as director of SUNY Oneonta's Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies, the oldest program of its kind in the country.

"We cover history, art, science — we've had museum curators, directors and educators from all over the world come to live in Cooperstown for two years," Sorin said. "It's a very hands-on program. We do real projects — exhibits and public programs at museums all over the region.

Sorin herself has curated exhibits with the Smithsonian, the Jewish Museum and the New York State Historical Association, among others.

A New Jersey native, Sorin graduated from Rutgers University with a bachelor's degree in American studies and before earning her master's degree in history museum studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program. She received her PhD in history from the University at Albany.

The 52nd NAACP Image Awards ceremony will air live on BET at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 27. RSVP at virtualexperience.naacpimageawards.net for access.

Sarah Eames, staff writer, can be reached at seames@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7213. Follow her @DS_SarahE on Twitter.