Just a 10-minute jog to the Mexican border sits what was listed in the 1957 Negro Travelers’ Green Book as the A. Winston Tourist Home at 3205 Alameda Ave., El Paso, Texas, which was owned by Anderson and Gertrude Winston. The Winstons lived in El Paso for most of their lives, with Anderson being trained as a grocer,…

I asked folks, “Which black businesses should I check out in Phoenix?” and universally people said, “Lo-Lo’s Chicken and Waffles.” I agreed. But what they didn’t know is that the owner of Lo-Lo’s is my cousin Larry White.

The dilapidated neighborhood sits in the dark shadow of downtown Phoenix, an American shantytown that time forgot. It’s a block with boarded-up, lean-to homes with glass windows that have been replaced by Home Depot plastic sheeting. Lingering are beaten-up F-150 trucks with giant American flags as their only point of…

On the outskirts of Phoenix, on a nondescript street of a forgettable block, sits an extraordinary relic of black motoring past, and my first Green Book stop. It’s the former home of Louis Jordan, or, as it’s listed in the 1957 Negro Travelers’ Green Book, the Louis Jordan Tourist Home at 2118 Violet Drive.

Dawn hadn’t broken at 5 a.m. PDT when I jumped into the Mustang and headed east. #TheRootTrip is officially underway, and the first destination was Hooper’s Shell at 11913 Compton Ave., Los Angeles. Hooper’s is the only black-owned gas station in Los Angeles, so of course it made sense to fill up the Mustang for the…