Chicken Bone Beach - Henrietta Shelton

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Résumé :
During the Jim Crow era, a group of Atlantic City hotel owners and politicians agreed to designate Missouri Avenue Beach, later nicknamed Chicken Bone Beach, as sandy space where thousands of African American vacationers could enjoy the pleasures of family, friends, and summer fun annually. From the early 1900s to the mid-1960s, this space along the shoreline was occupied by local families and African American vacationers. Back then, Atlantic City was considered America's premiere resort. But off the Boardwalk between Mississippi and Missouri Avenues was where Blacks shared fond memories. The Northside, where local Black families lived, was where everyone from the East Coast and Midwest came to experience rhythm and blues and jazz at Club Harlem. Nearly every major Black artist and musician toured the Kentucky Avenue scene, and some even sunbathed on the beach. While the city remains an American cultural landscape, Chicken Bone Beach is a nearly forgotten landmark in the annals of outdoor leisure and recreation history.

Biographie:
Ronald J. Stephens is a professor of African American studies in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Purdue University; author of two Arcadia titles, Idlewild: The Black Eden of Michigan and African Americans of Denver; and an advisory board member of the Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation Inc. Henrietta W. Shelton is cofounder and current president of the Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation Inc., an Atlantic City Northside native and resident, and member of the local chapter of the NAACP.