The Negro Traveler Green Book tourist homes in Morgantown, WV

1046 College Ave, 2 Cayton Street, and 3 Cayton Street were all listed as tourist homes in the Negro Traveler Green Book during the 1950s and 1960s. The Green Book was a travel resource for African Americans to guide them to safe accommodations during the Jim Crow and segregation era, and these three homes would have provided lodgings to travelers in the Morgantown area.

The Negro Motorist Green Book was published between 1936 and 1967 as a guide for African American travelers to find accommodations during the Jim Crow Era. Due to segregation and discrimination it could be difficult, or even dangerous, to find food, lodging, and other services in unfamiliar places while traveling. To meet the need of the African American community, New York City postman Victor Hugo Green began his guide in 1936 only covering services in New York. It was immediately popular and the publication expanded to cover the entire United States. The Green Book was well-known within the African American community as a resource to find lodging, food, gas and car services, taxis, beauty parlors, and entertainment in a society where Black Americans faced lynching and segregation in their daily lives. Once the Civil Rights Act of 1864 passed, barring discrimination and segregation, the Green Book phased out by 1967.

The Green Book accommodations in Morgantown, WV included the three tourist homes on Cayton Street, Cobb’s Restaurant on Kirk Street, and the American Legion on University Place (listed as a night club). Cobb's Restaurant and the American Legion are no longer extant.

1046 College Ave was listed as a tourist home under the proprietor Okey Ogden between 1949 and 1952 in the Negro Traveler’s Green Book. Ogden was born in 1887 or 1888 and his family lived in Morgantown, WV by 1900. As a young man, Ogden played on an amateur baseball team managed by Morgantown barber Ralph Garner and also worked as a barber in the 1910s. He served in WWI (1918-1919) as Corporal of Company D, 542^nd Engineers. After Ogden returned from overseas he worked for many years with the West Virginia University football team as a trainer, “rubber” (massaging and bandaging players), and equipment manager. Okey Ogden is mentioned several times in newspaper articles about the football program as one of the main staff members of the team. His mother, Flodie Henderson, lived at 1046 College Ave by the 1930 census with Okey Odgen living as part of the household. Odgen does not appear on the 1940 census under Henderson’s household; however, he lists 1046 College Ave as his place of residence on his WWII Registration Card with his mother as his contact. In the Morgantown City Directory for the 1930s and 1940s he is listed as a waiter or janitor at West Virginia University, Beta Theta Pi Fraternity House, and Hotel Morgan. Flodie Henderson died in 1948 and Ogden must have assumed ownership of the house. 1949 is the first year Morgantown, WV is listed in the Green Book and “Okey Odgen—1046 College Ave” is listed under lodgings. Okey Ogden died in 1953 and 1046 College Avenue was no longer listed in the Green Book although ownership of the property passed to Linnie M. Slaughter that year.

2 Cayton and 3 Cayton Street were both listed as lodging between 1949 and 1964 as tourist homes. All three homes were run by members of the same family. Mrs. Jeanette O. Parker, proprietor of 2 Cayton Street, was Okey Odgen’s sister and Mrs. Linnie Mae Slaughter, of 3 Cayton Street, was Parker’s daughter and Odgen’s niece.

Jeanette Ogden, Okey Odgen’s sister, was originally married to Charles Edwards and had three children from this marriage: Linnie May, Grace, and William. Jeanette Edwards later remarried to Hartley Thomas Parker in 1914. Between 1929 and 1941 Jeanette Parker worked as a cook for the Alpha Xi Delta and Kappa Alpha Fraternities and Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at West Virginia University. She was a pastry cook at Woman’s Hall until 1950 when she retired from the University. Hartley Parker died sometime between 1947 and 1951. Jeanette O. Parker was a member of St. Paul’s A.M.E. Church and longtime member of the Morgantown chapter of Order of Eastern Star. Jeanette O. Parker died on August 12, 1972 at age 86.

Linnie Mae Slaughter, one of Jeanette’s daughters, was born November 19, 1900. Like her mother, Slaughter was an active member of St. Pauls’ A.M.E. Church and the Order of Eastern Star. Between 1925 and 1927 Linnie Mae Edwards married Charles W. Slaughter and the couple moved to Cayton Street. Charles worked as a cook and janitor and Linnie Mae worked for about 4 decades as a cook for the Delta Tau Delta, Beta Theta Pi, and Kappa Alpha fraternities at West Virginia University. Charles Slaughter died in the 1960s and Linnie Mae Slaughter died in 1969. Slaughter was listed in the Dominion News as a patient at Hadley Hospital in Washington D.C., on August 27, 1969 and she died in the same hospital on September 9. After the passing of both her mother and sister, Grace Edwards Waters had all three properties in her name on the tax records.

Ancestry.com Records: 1900 United States Federal Census; 1910 United States Federal Census; 1920 United States Federal Census; 1930 United States Federal Census; 1940 United States Federal Census; City Directories—Morgantown, WV (1918, 1920, 1922, 1925, 1927, 1929, 1931, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1945, 1947, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1960); Application for Headstone or Marker. Ogden, Okey W. Co. D. 542^nd Engineers. November 16, 1953; Headstone, Okey W. Ogden, Aug 14, 1887-Oct 28, 1953. East Oak Grove Cemetery; WWI Registration Card. Okey Ogden. Serial Number 2081; WWII Registration Card. Okey Washington Odgen. 1350. No. 84; WWII Registration Card. Charles William Slaughter. Serial Number 842.

Biennial Report of the Auditor of State to the Governor, the Legislature and the Taxpayers of West Virginia For the Fiscal Years 1921-1922. John C. Bond Auditor. Charleston: Tribune Printing Co. 1922. Google Books.

Brown, DeNeen L. “‘Life or death for Black travelers: How fear led to ‘The Negro Motorist Green-Book’” The Washington Post. June 1, 2017. Accessed May 25, 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/06/01/life-or-death-for-Black-travelers-how-fear-led-to-the-negro-motorist-green-book/.

Monongalia County Assessor's Office, Parcel Database & Archives. Scanned Map Cards for Map 20, Plots 620, 623, 624, 625, and 626. https://www.assessor.org/2204/Parcel-Database-Archives.

Monongalia County Tax Map: District 99, Map 20. Monongalia County Assessor’s Office, Parcel Database & Archives: https://www.assessor.org/2204/Parcel-Database-Archives.

Monongalia County Tax Records. Monongalia County Sheriff’s Tax Office. Tax records for Monongalia County, District 13, Map 20, Parcels 620, 623, and 624. https://monongalia.softwaresystems.com/index.html.

The Negro Traveler's Green Book, 1946-1964 editions.

“The Green Book.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 25, 2021. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/9ea5d5b0-1117-0132-7932-58d385a7b928#/?tab=about.

“The Negro motorist Green-book.” Library of Congress. Accessed May 25, 2021. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016298176/.

Newspapers.com Database (searches for Okey Ogden, Jeanette O. Parker, and Linnie Mae Slaughter).