Omni Severin is last Indy hotel standing from Green Book

Omni Severin is last Indy hotel standing from Green Book guide

For $50,000, Harvard buys a Green Book, a Jim Crow-era travel guide that lists local businesses safe for Black motorists — Source: Boston Globe / Getty

INDIANAPOLIS — Black travelers were often denied hotel rooms because of the color of their skin before the Civil Rights Act became law in 1964. The Green Book helped them find safe places to stay, which included the Severin Hotel.

The now-Omni Severin Hotel was listed alongside several other Indianapolis hotels in the Green Book, but it is the only one still standing.

“We are honored to represent all of the people who were represented in that book,” said Omni Severin general manager Steve Quackenbush.

The Negro Motorists Green Book was published in 1966 to help Black tourists stay safe in the era of Jim Crow segregation and sundown towns. The National Park Service estimates more than 80 percent of the sites featured in the book are gone.

Only one former hotel site in Indianapolis even has a historical marker. The Senate Avenue YMCA site between Michigan Street and Indiana Avenue is now a parking lot.