Black Bike Week facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Black Bike Week |
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A custom Suzuki Hayabusa at Black Bike Week
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| Genre | Motorcycle rally |
| Date(s) | The weekend of Memorial Day weekend |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Location(s) | Greater Grand Strand, South Carolina |
| Years active | 43 |
| Inaugurated | 1980 |
| Participants | 350,000 |
Black Bike Week, also called Atlantic Beach Bikefest and Black Bikers Week, is an annual motorcycle rally in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area, held on Memorial Day weekend. It is also sometimes called Black Fill-in-the-Blank Week, because it has evolved to attract many non-motorcycling visitors who come for music, socializing and enjoying the beach. Events include motorcycle racing, concerts, parties, and street festivals. Called a "one-of-a-kind event" and "an exhibitionist's paradise" by Jeffrey Gettleman, Black Bike Week is "all about riding, styling and profiling," in the words of Mayor Irene Armstrong of Atlantic Beach, South Carolina.
It is the largest African American motorcycle rally in the US. Attendance has been variously reported as 350,000, 375,000, and as high as 400,000. It is considered the third or fourth largest motorcycle rally in the United States. Around 10–15 percent of motorcyclists in the US are women, while at major African American motorcycle rallies, such as Black Bike Week or the National Bikers Roundup, women make up close to half of participants.
From 1940 until 2008, Myrtle Beach had also hosted a predominantly white motorcycle rally, called Harley-Davidson Week, also called the spring Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealer's Association (CHDDA) Rally. The two rallies have usually run consecutively, and because of unequal city policies such as different traffic rules and greater policing during Black Bike Week, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and individual rally participants have charged, as well as sued, the city government and local businesses with racial discrimination because of different treatment towards the black rally. In 2002 Black Bike week had 375,000 attendees, versus 200,000 for Harley-Davidson Week of the same year.
The city of Myrtle Beach has used new ordinances to push the 2009 and 2010 motorcycle events, both black and white, out of the city, where they have been welcomed by other municipalities and businesses, and bikers still came in spite of the official efforts to discourage them. After the 2010 motorcycle events the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the Myrtle Beach city ordinance requiring all motorcyclists to wear helmets, and four other ordinances.
"Black Bike Week" can also refer to a side event to the motorcycle rally Daytona Beach Bike Week at Daytona Beach, Florida that happens two months earlier, in March. Like the South Carolina event, the Daytona rally also has its origins in racial segregation, when blacks created their own parallel event after being excluded from the main white festival.
Origin
During the 1960s and 1970s, many black motorcyclists visited Atlantic Beach, South Carolina, some riding Harley-Davidsons, but also riding many Japanese Hondas, Kawasakis, Suzukis, and Yamahas, which, along with race, distinguished them as riders from the white event's participants who preferred the Harley-Davidsons. During the segregation era Atlantic Beach was the only beach in the South where blacks were permitted.
The Black Bike Week rally, originally called the Atlantic Beach Memorial Day BikeFest, was founded in Atlantic Beach by the Flaming Knight Riders motorcycle club in 1980. The first rally drew about 100 participants. Though one reason the Flaming Knight Riders worked with the City of Atlantic Beach to create the event was to make money for the town, it was not actually franchised by Atlantic Beach, and the city did not benefit financially; instead, bikers would, over the years, congregate more and more in Myrtle Beach rather than Atlantic Beach. In 1982, the Flaming Knight Riders were renamed the Carolina Knight Riders motorcycle club.
By the 1990s the event had grown to include the entire greater Myrtle Beach, or Grand Strand, area. In 2002, Atlantic Beach hired a public relations firm "to make the rest of the country aware of Atlantic Beach, its uniqueness as a predominantly black beach town and its potential as a vacation spot." This was part of a larger effort to promote the motorcycle rally by the Bike Week Task Force, a group of business owners and public officials from around the Grand Strand area.
The predominantly white rally dates to May 1940, when a group of Harley-Davidson dealers created The Piedmont Harley-Davidson Dealers Association which became The Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association when South Carolina dealers joined. The group's first event was a ride to Ocean Drive in Myrtle Beach, and included a drag race and dirt track race and other festivities. In subsequent years the rally was held in Cherry Grove, Jacksonville and Wilmington, North Carolina before returning to Myrtle Beach. The 2009 event was at New Bern, North Carolina, and the 2010 rally is planned for the same location, two weeks before Memorial Day weekend.
Atlantic Beach Bikefest events
The town of Atlantic Beach hosted a street festival title The Atlantic Beach Bikefest, host by NDA Game Entertainment during the Memorial Day Black Bike Week weekend.
Custom motorcycle builders, parts suppliers and motorcycle dealers provide a focal point for activities during Bikefest, displaying their wares and using motorcycle stunt shows or other entertainment to attract crowds. Motorcycle clubs coming together and networking is a large part of the activity as well, described by some participants as, "an event to be recognized" where, "clubs came out to rep their colors," and, "mostly just to have fun."
Past efforts to centrally organize Bikefest events have failed, with the activity remaining mostly spontaneous. Cruising and street parties flourish while people dance in the streets, hug, kiss, and hop on the back of strangers' bikes. Vendors sold food, T-shirts, mix CDs, and offered wheelie rides on customized motorcycles. Live entertainment includes nightly gospel and other music, and daily motorcycle stunt shows.
Attendance at the 2010 Bikefest events held in Atlantic Beach appeared to be up over 2009, with greater variety in entertainment, merchandise and services offered. Atlantic Beach Town Manager William Booker said there are more families with children, and that, "We have a lot more going on in terms of vendors this year, including more people who are selling parts and upgrades for bikes, which is something we're really working to get more of. People are literally getting their bikes worked on today, which hasn't happened a lot in the past."
On December 1, 2014, a task force approved a 23-mile loop to allow better traffic flow after trouble at the 2014 event. During certain hours on Memorial Day weekend 2015, Ocean Boulevard south of 29th Avenue North would be southbound only with traffic allowed to enter and exit the road only in specific locations, and the loop would continue on Kings Highway, Harrelson Boulevard which becomes George Bishop Parkway, Waccamaw Boulevard which runs parallel to U.S. 501, Carolina Bays Parkway, Grissom Parkway, U.S. 17 Bypass and 29th Avenue North.
Police said the loop worked, while some bikers had problems dealing with the confusion, and some felt unwelcome and called the measures "overreaction". The loop was used again in 2016, and the same route was planned for 2017. Some who felt mistreated want to boycott Myrtle Beach in 2017, while the City of Myrtle Beach responded that Bike Week is "not an organized event" and requires additional measures to make it safe.
As of 2017, the event is called The Black Pearl Cultural Heritage and Bike Festival.
For 2020, the Atlantic Beach Bikefest was postponed and finally cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Images for kids
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Traffic stop at Black Bike Week 2007
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Bike Week 2008
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