Life’s A Beach
Highland Beach. Charles Douglass (inset photo) founded the beach. He was the son of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. (Chesapeake’s Western Shore—Vintage Vacationland by Lara L. Lutz. Available from the publisher online at http://www.arcadiapublishing.com or by calling 888-313-2665)
A Look At America’s Former “Black Beaches”
By Marion Porter
Inland Boater Magazine
It’s a typical summer weekend on the Chesapeake Bay – bright sun, calm breezes and a temperature hot enough to give you heat stroke if you’re not careful.
A small flotilla of boats is anchored just off the Chesapeake Bay inlet at Oyster Creek, about five miles south of Annapolis, and the sound of smooth jazz and smell of food grilling dance across the water from Highland and Venice beaches.
The scene is a study in ethnic diversity. People are laughing and playing together on their boats and on the beach in a setting that is both idyllic and thought-provoking, particularly when the history of black beach life is considered.
Not all that long ago, Jim Crow denied blacks access to most of America’s beaches and resorts. In response, a number of visionary and entrepreneurial African Americans developed what came to be known as “black beaches” along the eastern seaboard, the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes and many other American waterways.
These beach communities generally were weekend havens, although some were week-day sites for summer camps, church picnics and business retreats. Some of the beaches and resorts were on the famed “Chitlin’ Circuit,” playing host to musicians and performers that included Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, James Brown and Aretha Franklin.
With integration, the shape of things changed. Many historically black beaches experienced severe declines or simply ceased to exist. Some have since re-emerged as up-scale locales and destinations catering to populations that are both affluent and ethnically diverse.
Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts
The Town of Oak Bluffs is a resort on the northeast shore of Martha’s Vineyard that was originally settled in 1642 and incorporated as Cottage City in 1880. The town’s name was changed in 1907 to reflect the growth in the year-round population and shifting demographics.
Once a religious mecca and retreat for upper class Blacks, it is now a vibrant community operating Oak Bluffs Marina, the largest marina on Martha’s Vineyard, situated in the midst of the historic gingerbread campgrounds. Occasionally referred to as “OB”, Oak Bluffs is also home to several public beaches and parks, a microbrewery and the island’s best golf course, Farm Neck Golf Club.
Sag Harbor, New York
The Village of Sag Harbor is located on the South Fork of Long Island. Initially inhabited first by Algonquin Indians, the 2-square-mile Village on the Island’s East End in the heart of the Hamptons was not permanently settled until late 1730, although Southampton Town records first mention Sag Harbor by name in 1709.
From 1760 to 1850, the Village was a thriving whaling port second only to New York City in importance. A group of freed blacks known as the “Black Whalers” figured prominently in the whaling industry before its decline. These days, Sag Harbor is a discreet summer resort town filled with high-end shops, boutiques and restaurants.
Highland Beach, Maryland
In 1892, Charles Douglass, the youngest son of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, was denied service at the Bay Ridge Resort because of his race. Soon after, Charles and his wife, Laura, met Daniel Brashears, a black farmer who owned land across the Oyster Creek channel from the resort.
Backed by funding from Frederick Douglass, Charles and Laura purchased 44 acres of bay front property from Brashears and built a summer enclave for family and friends. A residence for the elder Douglass was also planned.
The historic property became the site of Highland Beach, a recognized summer retreat for well-off African Americans. Residents and guests included Harriet Tubman, Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
Unfortunately, Frederick Douglass died in 1895 before he could live in his summer cottage, called “Twin Oaks,” which still stands today. Notable for its “widow’s walk” (a railed rooftop platform originally designed for observing vessels at sea thus enabling mariners’ wives to watch for their spouses to return), the house was built to allow Douglass to look across the Chesapeake as a free man to Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where he was born a slave.
Incorporated in 1922, Highland Beach was the first black municipality in Maryland. Now, it’s a gentrified, year-round community whose multiethnic population is mirrored by neighboring Oyster Harbor and Venice Beach.
Carr’s Beach, Sparrow’s Beach, Columbia Beach, Henry’s Beach and Arundel-on-the-Bay, Maryland
In addition to Highland Beach, Anne Arundel County included several other waterside havens that played host to black families in segregated Maryland during the fifties and early sixties. Included were Carr’s and Sparrow’s beaches in Annapolis, and the beach communities of Arundel-On-The-Bay and Columbia Beach in Anne Arundel’s “South County” area.
Carr’s Beach was the most famous. Affectionately known as “The Beach,” it played host to events such as day camps and church picnics during the week. On weekends – especially Sunday afternoons – Carr’s Beach and Henry’s Beach, across the Chesapeake Bay in Somerset County, were major stops on the “Chitlin’ Circuit,” a network of performance venues on the East Coast and in the South where African American entertainers could perform during segregation.
Carr’s Beach no longer exists as a getaway spot.
Sandy Beach Resort, Virginia
Sandy Beach Resort near Martinsville, VA, opened in the early 1930s and was established by Dr. Dana Olden Baldwin, the town’s first African American physician and one of its most successful entrepreneurs.
The resort included a motel and pool with a stage for concerts located just outside the city limits near the Smith River. Around the same time, he established the June German Ball, a dance party and festival that became an annual tradition for more than 40 years, and hosted such famous entertainers as Cab Calloway and Sam Cooke.
Flood damage caused by the Smith River contributed to the demise of the resort in the 1970s.
Chowan Beach, North Carolina
Chowan Beach was a 400-acre vacation refuge established in 1926 by Eli Reid of Winton, NC.
Located in northeastern North Carolina on the banks of the Chowan River, about a mile above Winton in Hertford County, the “Beach” was a herring seine fishery before becoming known as a family oriented resort and playground for blacks. In 1967, Chowan Beach was sold to Sam Pillmon, a businessman from Ahoskie who made improvements that extended operations through the 1990s until the facility was crippled by competition from amusement parks in nearby Virginia, causing the beach to close.
American Beach, Butler Beach and Bethune-Volusia Beach, Florida
Florida’s first resort for African Americans was American Beach on Amelia Island. Abraham Lincoln Lewis, president of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company in Jacksonville and the state’s first black millionaire, founded American Beach when he bought 200 acres of oceanfront property 1935.
Now, American Beach is a 100-acre seaside enclave (half was sold to developers) that is on the National Register of Historic Places, bounded by the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island on one side and the Amelia Island Plantation Resort on the other. It is home to approximately 75 full-time residents.
While the ethnic makeup in Butler Beach is recorded in the 2000 census as 97.97% white, for years it was the only beach between Jacksonville and Daytona that welcomed African Americans. Businessman Frank B. Butler founded the beach in 1927 when he purchased land between the Atlantic Ocean and Matanzaa River.
Six miles south of New Smyrna, Bethune-Volusia Beach was developed in the 1940s by a number of prominent Florida blacks who wanted a residential resort community and recreation area that African Americans could call their own. Among those in the partnership were educator Mary McLeod Bethune, investor George W. Engram, Sr., insurance executive G.D. Rogers of Tampa and rancher Lawrence Silas of Kissimmee.
Purchased in 1943, the 2.5-mile strip of beachfront was eventually subdivided into lots with the goal of selling to blacks who wanted to live near the ocean. The effort did not succeed because only the wealthy could afford the construction prices. As a result, the project died in the mid-1960s, as speculators bought empty lots from black landowners and resold the property. Upscale oceanfront homes now line the beach.
Gulfside United Methodist Assembly, Waveland, Mississippi
Initially one of the few places in the South where blacks could find hotel and meeting accommodations, Gulfside United Methodist Assembly in Waveland, MS, was a bustling retreat and recreation center that hosted more than 5,000 visitors a year. The Assembly was founded by Bishop Robert E. Jones in 1923 on 70 acres along the Gulf of Mexico.
Jones, the first African American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was speaking at a white Methodist campground in Ohio when he decided to establish a similar enclave for African Americans. With the aid of churches and individuals, he raised about $4,000 to buy land in Waveland, He bought 300 acres and leased another 316 acres from the state.
Gulfside Assembly was totally destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Even so, the Assembly continues to serve the needs of people in Waveland, nearby Bay St. Louis and all along the Mississippi Coast.
Idlewild, Michigan
Idlewild, located in rural northwestern Michigan, was for many years the “Black Eden” of a few resorts where African-Americans could vacation and purchase property. It was also a touchstone of black identify and culture.
From 1912 through the mid-1960s, Idlewild was an active year-round community visited by well-known entertainers and professionals from across the country. It was the most popular resort in the Midwest at its peak, with as many as 25,000 people coming during the summer to enjoy a variety of recreation activities and entertainment.
When the 1964 Civil Rights Act opened up other resorts to African-Americans, Idlewild’s boomtown period subsided. The community continues to be an important place for vacationers and retirees.
It also, provided the inspiration for the 2006 movie, “Idlewild,” even though the setting for the film is Prohibition-era Georgia.
The community’s history was explored in more depth in “Black Eden,” an award-winning book by Benjamin C. Wilson and Lewis Walker in 2002. The book includes a lengthy discussion about the crucial role Idlewild played in the careers of artists such as Louis Armstrong, B.B. King, Sammy David, Jr., Jackie Wilson, Aretha Franklin and Della Reese. It also explores issues involved in living in a segregated society and the consequences – intended as well as unintended – of the civil rights movement.
