Atlantic City’s Chicken Bone Beach to be ‘recreated’ at NAACP national convention. What was it?

It’s been nearly 60 years since the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed and Chicken Bone Beach transitioned from a racially segregated beach into a public vacation destination at the Jersey Shore.

But the legacy of the site, which was bustling in a segregated Jim Crow-era Atlantic City, lives on.

On July 20, the 113th NAACP National Convention will pay tribute to Chicken Bone Beach by “recreating” the landmark, organizers told NJ Advance Media.

“What we’ll do is have a private event, only available to persons who are registered for the convention. We will have the full beach with entertainment, jazz, a live DJ and remarks from dignitaries,” said Yolanda Melville, vice president of the Atlantic City NAACP who is set to speak at the event.

More than 2,500 people are invited to the history-making event, which will also include roped off-entrances, live exhibits, screens showcasing the beach’s history and fashion to honor Black culture, said Henrietta Shelton, founder of the Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation. Next week’s “recreation” of the beach will include actors playing Sammy Davis, Jr. and other stars known to have frequented the city.

What was Chicken Bone Beach?

Atlantic City hotel owners in 1928 told city officials that due to the booming Black community complaints from white patrons were increasing.

“The matter of colored bathers was taken up,” an executive from the Ambassador Hotel wrote a public official, according to historical archives at the Atlantic City Free Public Library. “The Georgia Avenue side of the Convention Hall would be a logical place for colored bath houses.”

This despite Black and white communities having shared the beach for nearly 80 years, since the resort city was founded when railroads finally met at the Shore from the north and west.

Jim Crow racial segregation laws were never officially enacted in Atlantic City. However, local leaders sought “diplomatic measures,” according to a 1931 letter to an official in San Diego, California, who had reached out for advice. The letter is included in historical archives at the Atlantic City Free Public Library.

“The leading members of our community conferred with leaders of the negro race and advised them it was for the best interest of everyone concerned that the negroes patronize the beach at which the colored lifeguards were placed,” the letter stated. “…[T]he word seemed to spread among them … the thing for them to do would be to patronize the aforesaid beach … No strong-arm methods were used … and the matter was amicably adjusted by the use of diplomatic methods.”

The north side of town, which was already home to thousands of Black people who worked in hotels and other Atlantic City businesses, became the prime area for Black people to “patronize” Atlantic City, historians said.

An area stretching north from Missouri Avenue, oceanfront property owned by the city and near the Convention Hall, would be the area where “colored” lifeguards would be stationed. Hotels, restaurants and bars quickly sprung up to serve Black people and an entertainment district revolving around Club Harlem drew top Black entertainers, including Sammy Davis, Jr., Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

Still, most of the visitors of Chicken Bone Beach were families on day trips who packed lunches and snacks for the day — including fried chicken, local historians previously told NJ Advance Media.

The name eventually stuck.

“They couldn’t go into restaurants, so when people were coming from out of town and they didn’t know where they could go or what section they’d be put in at a restaurant, they brought their own food,” said Shelton, noting that chicken was a common choice evidenced by bones often plucked from the sand when beaches cleared.

Shelton, who founded the Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation in the 1990s, said some took offense with the name. But ultimately people made peace with it and used it to celebrate Black culture and “make lemonade out of lemons,” she said.

A wooden-framed plaque near the beach now reads: “This beach was designated the exclusively African American section of the beach in the segregation era. The beach attracted popular Black entertainers, local residents and tourist … With the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, all Atlantic City beaches were open to everyone.”

Shelton’s foundation also sponsors a series of summer jazz concerts on Chicken Bone Beach and year-round programs for youths. She said that in addition to providing attendees a glimpse into the beach’s past, she is looking forward to hosting jazz musicians, including the Nat Adderley Jr. Quartet.

“We’re very honored to be the organization to provide this type of experience at the convention,” she said.

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Steven Rodas may be reached at srodas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @stevenrodasnj. Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com.