Hattie Wooten Lewis, a pioneering Black businesswoman, opened Raleigh’s Lewis Hotel in 1919, creating a safe haven for Black travelers and students during segregation and earning a place in The Negro Motorist Green Book. Though the hotel was destroyed in 1992 and her story has largely faded from public memory, her family is working to preserve the legacy of a woman whose hospitality and community leadership supported generations of Black Americans.
