 Until long after the Civil Rights era (1955 – 1968), black travelers in the United States faced major problems to which most whites were oblivious. White supremacists had long sought to restrict black mobility. As a result, simply undertaking an auto journey was fraught with difficulty for black people and was potentially a dangerous undertaking. They were subjected to racial profiling by police departments ("Driving While Black"), faced being punished for being seen as "uppity" or "too prosperous" if they were driving a car (an act that many whites regarded as a white prerogative), and risked harassment or worse on and off the highway. A bitter commentary published in a 1947 issue of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's magazine, The Crisis, highlighted the uphill struggle blacks faced in undertaking recreational travel:
