Get Off The Highways and Explore South Carolina with the Green Book of SC

Fried okra, Carolina gold rice, tomatoes warm off the vine … these are the summer foods of South Carolina, and all of them have an African American connection. Go beyond the plate this summer to explore the place, the terroir (to use that buzzword) of these iconic Southern foods.

The Green Book of S.C. is a contemporary travel-planning tool that pays homage to the original Green Book, first published in 1936 by New York City postman Victor Green as an African American travel guide to safe harbors and welcoming establishments across the United States. This contemporary homage features tourism destinations while focusing on the story of African Americans in the Palmetto State.

Probably no other crop defines the state more than rice. Rice, which had been harvested and consumed by people on the Asian and African continents for centuries, was introduced to America in 1685. Although colonists had already identified the low-lying marshes and tidal rivers as ideal rice fields, the enslaved people brought to America from the west coast of Africa taught them advanced harvesting techniques that allowed them to mass-produce and make rice a cash crop. There were rice plantations all over the South Carolina Lowcountry, including Hampton Plantation State Historic Site (which is mentioned in Green Book’s Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site entry) and the Cooper River Historic District. And since rice is a crop that redefines the landscape with a series of locks and controlled flooding, the state still bears that evidence today. Carolina Gold Rice, the actual variety of rice grown, has been revived as a crop and is a favorite of many Southern chefs, so it’s easy to find a bite after taking in the sights.