Another major resort was Idlewild in Lake County, Michigan. Founded in 1912, it was popular spot for prominent black Americans like Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, founder of Chicago’s Provident Hospital; attorney Violette Neatley Anderson, the first black woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court; and millionaire Madam C.J. Walker, a businesswoman in the beauty industry. Families rode horses, roller-skated and swam in lakes during the day, and at night listened to musical acts like Louis Armstrong, Aretha Franklin and future Touched by an Angel star Della Reese.
W.E.B. Du Bois was also a fan of Idlewild. In 1921, he wrote: “For sheer physical beauty—for sheen of water and golden air, for nobleness of tree and flower of shrub, for shining river and song of bird and the low, moving whisper of sun, moon and star; it is the beautifulest stretch I have seen for twenty years.”
In addition to separate resorts, black Americans carved out enclaves for themselves in vacation spots that mostly catered to white elites like Martha’s Vineyard island in Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island.
“On Martha’s Vineyard you have a section called Oak Bluffs, which today is still very much a sort of black middle class vacation spot,” Armstead says. In Newport, prominent black Americans vacationed at Saratoga Springs. These spots became more racially integrated after the 1960s, and are still popular tourist destinations today.
Other vacation spots, like Idlewild and Highland Beach, disappeared as black upper- and middle-class vacationers opted for other resort options that were now available to them. Today, residents in both areas hope they can make a comeback as vacation destinations by highlighting the areas’ historic significance.
