The color line, and the Green Book's Fort Wayne

1936 — 1967

Not welcomed at the grand hotels: The Anthony, the Keenan, and the Indiana do not appear in the record as houses that took Black guests, and the state's own summary of the era states the arrangement flatly: Black travelers "were not welcomed in local, white-owned hotels." What Fort Wayne offered them instead was a parallel lodging economy of tourist homes — rooms in private houses, run mostly by women, listed year by year in The Negro Motorist Green Book, Victor H. Green's guide published from 1936 to 1967. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources counts about 200 Indiana businesses among the nearly 10,000 the Green Book advertised nationally.

Fort Wayne's lodging listings in the 1955 edition, printed as the guide printed them, were five tourist homes: Howell, 1803 S. Hanna St.; Mrs. J. Falls, 1231 S. Barr St.; Mrs. L. Jones, 1230 E. Jefferson; Mrs. B. Talbot, 456 E. Douglas; and Mrs. M. Rollins, 844 S. College St. The city's one restaurant listing that year was Leo Manuals', 1329 Lafayette St. — carried in the guide since 1939 in local researchers' count, the longest-listed Fort Wayne business, at twenty-one years. Local research counts about ten Fort Wayne Green Book sites in all, forming a network of about 1.7 miles inside the city's redlined D-4 district. No Fort Wayne hotel or motel — as opposed to tourist homes — appears in the editions reached; the distinction is the segregation itself, expressed as a directory.

The Talbot house carries the record's open discrepancy. The 1955 guide prints Mrs. B. Talbot at 456 East Douglas. The African/African-American Historical Society Museum stands at 436 East Douglas, and the Department of Natural Resources and the genealogical society both identify that duplex as the former "Mrs. B. Talbot's Tourist Home" — "the only building still standing in Fort Wayne once listed in the Negro Motorist Green Book." A 2026 local video history places the Talbot home at 456 and calls the lot empty. The addresses stand unreconciled in the record and are printed so here; what is not in dispute is that the Talbot listing ran for years — local research dates it 1948 to 1967 — and that a Douglas Avenue tourist home is the last physical survivor of Fort Wayne's Green Book. The guide itself ceased publication after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, its work, in its publishers' hope, done. The Black History leg carries the wider arc of Black Fort Wayne; this entry keeps its lodging record.

Sources:

1. The Negro Travelers' Green Book, 1955 edition (Victor H. Green & Co.) — the Fort Wayne tourist-home listings and the Leo Manuals' restaurant listing, printed verbatim.
2. Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Green Book post of October 2, 2023, via ACGSI's African Americans page — about 200 Indiana listings of nearly 10,000, the 436 E. Douglas museum duplex as the Talbot tourist home and the only standing Green Book building in Fort Wayne, and Black travelers "not welcomed in local, white-owned hotels."
3. Chris Lahr, "The Green Book in Fort Wayne" (video, 2026) — the roughly ten sites and 1.7-mile network in the D-4 district, Leo Manuel's 1939 first listing and twenty-one years, and the Talbot listing dated 1948–1967 at 456 E. Douglas, printed here against the museum's 436.
4. Smithsonian NMAAHC transcription, Green Book (1940s edition) — Fort Wayne's restaurant listing, Leo Manuals', 1329 Lafayette St.