[African-American sunbathers stroll down Missouri Avenue]
Item
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Title
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[African-American sunbathers stroll down Missouri Avenue]
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Description
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Five smiling and styling women take a coordinated step forward down Missouri Avenue around Chicken Bone Beach, New Jersey.
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Five smiling women take a coordinated step forward down what was thought to be Kentucky Avenue, but upon research was discovered to be Missouri Avenue. They are wearing various styles of bathing suits, three are wearing unbuttoned button-down shirts, one is wearing trousers with a belt, and one is wearing a skirt. Four of the five women are carrying bags and/or additional clothing. Two men are walking behind them.
According to Temple University Libraries, Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection: Chicken Bone Beach was the segregated section for African Americans on Atlantic City's beach area. Between 1900 and the early 1950s, African Americans were socially restricted to use the Missouri Avenue Beach Area. Since many vacationing Black families arrived with chicken-laden hampers, the strip became affectionately named Chicken Bone Beach.
Kentucky Avenue, also referred to as “KY & The Curb,” was a popular spot for the East Coast music scene– with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Nat King Cole being some of the great jazz and blues artists that played in the Kentucky Avenue clubs (Miller 2010).
Hotel signs are visible behind the women: Emerald Hotel, Ocean View Hotel, and Hotel Victoria. According to old Atlantic City Press newspaper classified ads and articles between 1940-1972, it appears that this photo was taken on Missouri Avenue, not Kentucky Avenue. Emerald Hotel’s location appears to be 116 S. Missouri Ave (Atlantic City Press 1940), Ocean View Hotel at 117 S. Missouri Ave (Atlantic City Press 1953), and Villa Victoria Hotel at 115 S. Missouri Ave (Atlantic City Press 1972). This street has an entrance to Chicken Bone Beach beachfront access. The hotspot that was Kentucky Avenue is less than a mile east of this location.
“Chicken Bone Beach” (also dubbed “Sunshine Row” by showgirls or simply “the place to be”) of which was famously popular and frequented by local and visiting families of all classes, celebrities, entertainers, and politicians in and of the Black community (Hart 2022; Stephens 2014; UMBC Interdisciplinary CoLab, n.d.). It was a place of fun, rest, resilience, pride, and leisure. It is said that fried chicken was eaten frequently and the leftover bones buried in the sand, hence the name “Chicken Bone Beach” (Hart 2022; Stephens 2014). The beach location, and other hot spots including Kentucky Ave in the surrounding area at the time, can be viewed below, courtesy of University of Maryland, Baltimore County (see “Chicken Bone Beach”). From the early 1900s until the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the beachfront accessible from Missouri Avenue was the only space that African Americans were permitted to use due to segregation and the desire of resort/hotel owners to restrict African Americans from their beachfront properties (Hart 2022; Rosenberg 2022; Stephens 2014).
This photo is part of the John W. Mosley Collection at the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University Libraries, of which was acquired in the late 1980s from the Mosley family (Hart 2022). John W. Mosley (1907-1969) was a Philadelphia-area African American photographer who photographed many prominent figures, places, and culture between the segregation period of the 1930s to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s (Temple University Libraries). He moved to Philadelphia in 1934, and photographed frequently in Atlantic City, NJ amongst other areas in the region.
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Chicken Bone Beach
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Rights
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This material is subject to copyright law and is made available for private study, scholarship, and research purposes only. For access to the original or a high resolution reproduction, and for permission to publish, please contact Temple University Libraries, the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection (blockson@temple.edu; 215-204-6632).
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Creator
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Mosley, John W.
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Format
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Image
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Spatial Coverage
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Atlantic City, NJ
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Publisher
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Temple University Libraries, Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
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Contributor
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Temple University Libraries, Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection
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Identifier
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BPA001X0319500000127
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Date Created
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(c. 1950's)
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Is Part Of
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John W. Mosley Photograph Collection
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Subject
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African American women
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Fashion--African American influences
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Atlantic City (N.J.)
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Leisure
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Bathing suits
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Hotels--New Jersey
