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Black Leadership on Route 66
Paving the Way for Generations
"Black history in New Mexico runs deep", according to State Historian Rob Martinez. African presence in New Mexico dates to the early 16th century, before the Coronado Expedition, with Estevanico (or Esteban de Dorantes), an enslaved man from Morocco who was sent to settle in the Americas. Estevanico was shipwrecked off the coast of Texas and wandered the high desert with other survivors for eight years. During that time, he became an explorer, learning the languages and culture of the local Indigenous communities. When he was found, he shared information with Spanish officials that would lead to the settlement of what is now New Mexico.
Africans settled in the territory alongside the Spanish and Indigenous peoples, blending with the populations. In the 19th century, Black Americans homesteaded in New Mexico, forming distinct but highly industrious communities in the Rio Grande Valley. Families of the “Buffalo Soldiers,” six regiments of all-Black soldiers stationed in Fort Union, New Mexico, continued living in the high desert long after the Civil War. One of those Buffalo Soldiers was a freed woman by the name of Cathay Williams, who called herself “William Cathay” during her years in the Army.
When the New Mexico Territorial Legislature struggled to choose between Santa Fe or Albuquerque for the University of New Mexico's permanent location, it was a Black law clerk, Fred Simms, who cast the deciding vote for Albuquerque.
Albuquerque’s Home Circle Club was established in 1914 by Mrs. Lula S. Black and eight founding members, becoming one of the first Black leadership organizations in the city with an emphasis on women’s leadership. Black envisioned an Albuquerque where African Americans were integral social leaders and role models. Her dream would come true many times over throughout the 20th century. During the heyday of Albuquerque’s Route 66, Black entrepreneurs ran motels, bed-and-breakfasts, garages and filling stations. Today, art studios, performance spaces, bakeries, restaurants and businesses such as the Albuquerque Trolley Company are proudly Black-owned on Route 66.
Members of Albuquerque’s Home Circle Club in the 1930s. Photo courtesy of Ana Pacheco.
R & H Super Service Garage, at 1401 South Arno Street, circa 1940, owned by Walter A. McDonald, a local Black businessman. H.W. Stowell Photo Collection, PICT 000-505, UNM Center for Southwest Research.
The Green Book and Black Entrepreneurship on Route 66
The Negro Motorist Green-Book: 1940, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. (1940).
The Negro Motorist Green-Book: 1940 Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/dc858e50-83d3-0132-2266-58d385a7b928
American postman Victor H. Greene came up with the idea for a guidebook geared for Black motorists in 1936 as he worked for the U.S. Postal Service and noticed that roadside necessities for travelers did not always cater Black Americans. Greene hired a small team of investigators nationwide to scout hotels, motels, restaurants, barber shops, laundromats, lounges and public resources that would accommodate Black visitors. Most of these businesses were Black-owned but some were not, such as the Alvarado Hotel or the De Anza Motel on Albuquerque’s Route 66. The Green Book ceased production in 1966.
Black entrepreneurs in historic Albuquerque flourished near downtown Albuquerque, especially on South Broadway and 4th Street, the pre-1937 Route 66. According to Rita Ann Turfley Powdrell, Executive Director of the African American Museum and Cultural Center of New Mexico, “The African-American communities were almost strictly entrepreneurial in New Mexico… for a population that’s just 3%, the entrepreneurial endeavors … are just outstanding.”
Frank & Virginia Ballou ran Aunt Brenda’s Bar-B-Que on 4th and Arno Street, on the pre-1937 alignment of Route 66. Aunt Brenda’s was a neighborhood institution, listed on the Green Book from 1949 to 1966. Frank Ballou was the descendant of John Collins, a U.S. Army Indian Scout, whose family was the second Black family to settle in Albuquerque during the Territorial Era.
Two-page spread from the 1952 edition of the Green Book, featuring locations around New Mexico, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. (1952).
The Negro Travelers Green Book: 1952. Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/42c15a10-92c7-0132-cf89-58d385a7b928
Aunt Brenda's Pit Bar-B-Q, ca. 1950, 405 North Arno off of Central Avenue, from the H.W. Stowell Photo Coll., PICT 000-505, Center for Southwest Research (UNM).
Virginia Outley Ballou was the adoptive daughter of Black urban developer Henry Outley and wife of John Franklin Ballou. The Outley and Ballou families were among Albuquerque’s first Black homesteaders who purchased land on the burgeoning East Mesa. They formed the Fraternal Aid Society (FAS) in 1938, a year after Route 66 was aligned through Central Avenue. Henry Outley, a trustee for the FAS, carried out the community’s vision for “affordable and quality” suburban housing for African Americans, so he platted the land for a proposed subdivision called the “East End Addition.” Today, that subdivision encompasses present-day Pennsylvania St in the west and Wyoming Blvd in the east, Lomas Boulevard in the south and Constitution Avenue in the north.
Development for the East End Addition didn’t begin until Henry’s daughter, Virginia, took over the project. Virginia was a savvy and motivated businesswoman. She began her career as a beauty consultant, later managing Aunt Brenda’s Bar-B-Que Pit. Virginia cultivated a safe community for African Americans on the road, so she knew the importance of a neighborhood for the emerging Black middle class. According to her daughter, Brenda Dabney, her pride in her heritage and hope for her community’s future emboldened her: “Deals were made on the country club golf course, a place where she wasn’t allowed to be.” While the East End Addition never saw its full potential, with only building 22 homes on the platted 24 blocks, Virginia and Henry’s dream is not forgotten. The East End Addition is Albuquerque’s only Black historic district.
In winning integration nationwide, many historic Green Book locations shuttered due to decreasing demand. This is a positive development in the big picture of justice, but the loss is felt as Black Albuquerqueans mine for their history in the city. While some businesses live on through memory, Black entrepreneurs today are paving the way for a new canon of iconic, welcoming establishments on Route 66.
Alice K. Hoppes (1939 - 2003)
Expo New Mexico along old Route 66 is the home of the New Mexico State Fair. Within the grounds is a performing arts pavilion named after one inspiring woman, Alice Faye Kent Hoppes. Hoppes was a longtime civil rights activist and president of the NAACP New Mexico chapter. Born and raised in Tucumcari, New Mexico – a small town on Route 66 – Hoppes was always outspoken against discrimination. Life in a segregated town inspired her to become an activist when she moved to Albuquerque in the 1960s. In her lifetime, she directed and assisted in the creation of the New Mexico Office of African American Affairs, fought for fair housing, advocated for Black educators in Albuquerque and led the creation of the African American Pavilion at Expo New Mexico – those are just a few of Hoppes’ transformative actions that made Albuquerque a more equitable city for all. She was an ambitious leader in her community, and her lifetime achievements are memorialized on Albuquerque’s Route 66.