Lincoln Beach amusement park facts for kids
Lincoln Beach was an amusement park in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was open from 1939 to 1965. This park was created especially for African American people. It existed during the Jim Crow era, a time of racial segregation when laws separated people by race.
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Lincoln Beach: A Special Place
Lincoln Beach was located along the shore of Lake Pontchartrain. This area, called Little Woods, was part of Eastern New Orleans. In the 1930s, this part of the Ninth Ward of New Orleans was not very developed.
The land for Lincoln Beach was given to the city in 1938 by Sam Zemurray. The Orleans Levee Board bought it a year later. First, this area was made into a swimming spot in the lake for "colored" New Orleanians. Then, more land was built out into the lake for the amusement park.
Fun Times at the Beach
Lincoln Beach was similar to another park called Pontchartrain Beach. Pontchartrain Beach was only for white people at that time. Lincoln Beach was smaller but offered lots of fun. It had many different rides and exciting games. There were also restaurants to grab a bite to eat.
Besides swimming in the lake, the park had a big swimming pool. Lincoln Beach was also famous for its live music. Many popular artists performed there. In its last ten years, famous musicians like Fats Domino, Nat King Cole, and The Neville Brothers played their music at the park.
Why Did It Close?
In 1964, Pontchartrain Beach became desegregated. This meant people of all races could visit it. After this change, the city stopped taking care of Lincoln Beach. The park soon started to fall apart and closed its doors in 1965.
Bringing the Beach Back
For many years, the old park sat empty. Its buildings slowly decayed. There have been different ideas to rebuild Lincoln Beach. However, the ruins stayed vacant for decades. The story of Lincoln Beach is told in a book called The Land Was Ours. This book is about African American beaches during the Jim Crow era.
In 2020, a New Orleans artist named Reggie Ford started cleaning up the beach. Other people, like Sage Michael, joined in to help. Today, the beach is clean and used by the community. Hundreds of visitors come to the beach on an average weekend. The mayor of New Orleans has looked at the beach. She has said she finds it unsafe right now. Councilmember Cyndi Nguyen is helping to support the project.
- Lincoln Beach amusement park at the Roller Coaster DataBase
Kahrl, Andrew W, The Land Was Ours: African American Beaches from Jim Crow to the Sunbelt South (Harvard University Press, 2012)
