A brand new Chesapeake map highlights 65 traditionally Black beaches and different locations of Black historical significance within the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation (BOCF) and Chesapeake Conservancy collaborated on the examine that features elements of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The new story map was created to strengthen conservation efforts of those historic places and to verify tales of the Chesapeake’s Black historical past are amplified.
“The story map highlights locations spanning from the touchdown of the primary enslaved Africans in English-occupied North America to the creation of Black leisure venues in the course of the time of Jim Crow,” reads the press launch saying the map.
BOCF and Chesapeake Conservancy used quite a lot of sources to assemble the map, together with newspapers, blogs, state net pages, and the Negro Motorist Green Book. The map factors out beaches, parks, and landmarks which have significance in Black historical past associated to the Chesapeake Bay. Even after their in depth analysis, the 2 teams acknowledge the listing is just not full.
“It’s so vital that we proceed to do the arduous work of guaranteeing that the story of the Chesapeake is advised by way of ebony eyes,” mentioned Vince Legget, President and Founder of BOCF. “African American land conservation and heritage preservation has turn out to be the ‘gold customary’ for measuring the long run success of the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation.”
“Black of the Chesapeake Foundation’s work has turn out to be a nationwide case examine for heritage preservation and the appliance of conventional and native ecological histories,” Legget mentioned. “We are equally delicate to the ocean degree rise, local weather change and the consequences of environmental hazards. Many of the websites recognized on this examine are located on the water’s edge, and our elders, truth-tellers and griots are disappearing at a charge far surpassing vanishing shoreline.”
“After partnering with Blacks of the Chesapeake and others to preserve the traditionally Black Elktonia Beach for a public park in Annapolis, we knew we couldn’t cease there,” mentioned Mark Conway, Executive Vice President of Chesapeake Conservancy. “There are so many different locations within the Chesapeake which might be important to Black historical past. Some are painful reminders of the darkish days of enslavement, whereas others are extra joyous tales of recreation, leisure, and tradition. All of those tales must be advised. We hope the examine will result in different Black historical past and conservation success tales.”
The BOCF has made it a aim for practically 20 years to protect what stays of “The Beaches,” of which Elktonia Beach is one. The Beaches represented the “coronary heart of leisure” within the mid-Atlantic area from the Thirties to the Seventies, welcoming Black individuals throughout segregation. Elktonia is the final remnant of an 180-acre property bought by freedman Frederick Carr in 1902. Carr’s daughters, Elizabeth Carr Smith and Florence Carr Sparrow owned and operated close by Carr’s and Sparrow’s Beaches, resorts that catered completely to African Americans throughout segregation.
In 2022, Elktonia Beach grew to become an Annapolis City Park. According to the press launch, “A 12 months and a half later, Elktonia-Carr’s Beach Heritage Park expanded to the adjoining property when town of Annapolis finalized the acquisition of the one-time residence of educator and former Coppin State University President Dr. Parlett Moore.”
The story map might be discovered on the Chesapeake Conservancy’s web site by clicking this hyperlink.
