Tag: Black History on Jekyll Island

Dr. James Clinton Wilkes and the St. Andrews Auditorium

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

by Allison Dupuis, JIA Museum Educator

In the early 1960s, the Dolphin Club and Motor Hotel, or simply the Dolphin Club, brought hundreds of excited visitors to Jekyll Island’s shores. Nearby St. Andrews Beach had been designated the first public beach in Georgia accessible to black visitors in 1950, and in the preceding decade, the local community had worked to develop a thriving black beach resort. The Dolphin Club filled its rooms and welcomed visitors to an idyllic slice of Georgia’s coastline. It also entertained them: the Lounge was a popular entertainment venue. Under the capable management of James Chandler, the Lounge expanded its repertoire beyond local jazz ensembles and dance bands. In 1961, B.B. King performed at the Dolphin Club Lounge—and other big-name performers like Percy Sledge and Millie Jackson soon followed. The Lounge had joined a chain of venues called the Chitlin’ Circuit, which showcased black performers and catered to black audiences.

As the Lounge continued to expand its reputation, though, the Dolphin Club also began to test the limits of its capacity. In 1960, the complex and Jekyll Island itself received a request from Dr. James Clinton Wilkes, president of the Black Dental Association of Georgia, to hold the Association’s annual convention on Jekyll Island. The island could accommodate the convention-goers at the Dolphin Club but had nowhere to host a group like the Black Dental Association. Dr. Wilkes was prepared for the situation—in fact, the request was ultimately a way to force Jekyll Island to provide an adequate convention space for groups like his. Wilkes used the “separate but equal” principle to argue for the construction of a convention space within the Dolphin Club complex. Jekyll Island quickly constructed the space to hold the convention, named it the St. Andrews Auditorium, and held the convention there later the same year. But the hasty construction project wasn’t the end of the story for the St. Andrews Auditorium or for Dr. Wilkes.

Until his death in 1965, Dr. James Clinton Wilkes continued to advocate for the end of segregation in Brunswick and the Golden Isles. He and his family were featured in a documentary, “The Quiet Conflict,” that highlighted Brunswick’s journey toward desegregation. Dr. Wilkes and his family were notable both for their residence on Jekyll Island and for the birth of their youngest child, the first black child born in the “white section” of Brunswick’s hospital. The St. Andrews Auditorium continued to host larger events like family reunions and dances. In 1964, just before Jekyll Island peacefully desegregated, the St. Andrews Auditorium hosted one of its final and most famous events. Local concert promoter Charlie Cross brought the Auditorium and the Dolphin Club complex its last big-name act: Georgia native Otis Redding.

Although the St. Andrews Auditorium no longer stands, historical markers across the former Dolphin Club site stand in tribute to the building’s history and to the civil rights work of people like Dr. Wilkes. This August, Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum will spearhead an exciting oral history program that hopes to collect memories from across the island’s 75 years as a state park. If you have memories to share from visits to the Dolphin Club, the St. Andrews Auditorium, or the early state era on Jekyll, preserve them as a part of the island’s history! To learn more about sharing your memories for future generations, visit jekyllisland.com/mosaic.

Genoa Martin, Jekyll Island Trailblazer

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

by Allison Dupuis, JIA Museum Educator

In 1955, the Jekyll Island State Park Authority approved two separate construction projects for the island’s southern end near St. Andrews Beach. Only five years earlier, African American community leaders from Brunswick had petitioned for and won access to Jekyll Island’s beaches. With this victory, St. Andrews Beach became the first (and, at the time, only) public beach in Georgia accessible to black visitors. The southern end of the island now needed amenities to provide for these crowds of beachgoers.

The first construction project, the Beach Pavilion, was completed in September of 1955, bringing concessions, a jukebox, and other amenities to St. Andrews. The second project, a set of segregated residential and commercial lots called St. Andrews Subdivision, was approved in the same year. At first, the subdivision didn’t receive much interest. However, following the success of the nearby Dolphin Club Motor Hotel and Lounge during the late 1950s and early 1960s, some local residents began to choose spots for vacation homes at St. Andrews Beach.

In 1963, Brunswick couple Genoa and Mamie Martin became the first residents of St. Andrews Subdivision. The couple were already well-known as community leaders in Glynn County, Georgia. Genoa Martin managed both Seldon Park, in Brunswick, and ran a beloved weekly radio program. He also worked with a genre of musical acts like those that graced the Dolphin Club stage. As a promoter, Martin brought nationally known musicians like James Brown, Cab Calloway, and Duke Ellington to the Brunswick area. By 1963, Martin and his family had submitted plans for a beach house and a request for a building permit to the Jekyll Island State Park Authority, which were approved on January 21. Over the preceding years as St. Andrews Subdivision flourished around them, the Martin family remained central figures of African American life on Jekyll Island.

Decades later, Genoa and Mamie’s daughter, Sandra Martin Mungin, shared fond memories of her time at the house on Jekyll Island. Like her parents, Sandra was an involved member of the community both in Brunswick and on Jekyll Island. She was a teenager when her parents built their house in St. Andrews Subdivision. Her friends flocked to the house to enjoy all the area had to offer including fishing, barbecues, dances at the Beach Pavilion, and walking on the beach. Sandra’s favorite memories of life on Jekyll Island involved “just spending time with my father and friends and doing simple things. Enjoying the beauty of Jekyll Island and what it has to offer. We just had a good time! That’s what it was all about, living over here, was to enjoy the place!”

This summer, Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum is excited to collect oral histories of life on Jekyll Island as it  continues to celebrate its 75th anniversary as a State Park. Like Sandra’s recollections, these oral histories share the depth and variety of experience on the island from the 1940s through today. Do you have a Jekyll Island story to tell? Visit the Mosaic website to share your unique memories with the curatorial team — your story may be recorded into our archives to further shape Jekyll Island’s rich history!

Dave Jackson and Jekyll Island’s Dolphin Club

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

By Allison Dupuis, JIA Museum Educator

When Jekyll Island State Park first opened to the public in 1948, it was accessible only to white visitors. In 1950, black leaders from nearby Brunswick petitioned for and won access to the island’s beaches, and St. Andrews Beach at the south end was designated for use by black visitors. Ten years after Jekyll Island’s grand opening, the Dolphin Club and Motor Hotel, a beach resort for black vacationers, opened at St. Andrews Beach—and it would soon be under new management.

The first version of the Dolphin Club lasted less than a year. The hotel officially opened for business in August of 1959, then closed later in 1959 due to financial difficulties. The Jekyll Island Authority bought the property for $299,000. In 1960, they leased it to its longest-running proprietor—Dave Jackson, a respected black banker, farmer, and businessman from the small town of Adel, Georgia.

Jackson’s hometown reputation preceded him. In 1948, a white journalist named Roy Sprigle spent a month traveling across the South, focusing on the experiences of a range of black people in the region. He published his experiences as a serialized article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and he focused one chapter entirely on Jackson’s notable success as a black farmer in a small southern community. According to Sprigle, Jackson owned two blocks of business property in Adel, along with a thousand acres of some of the best land in Georgia. He was known throughout his community as a hard worker and generous man who helped other farmers, black and white, in times of need. Dave and his wife, Comer King Jackson, worked hard to make themselves known as devoted advocates and examples for their family and their neighbors.

More than a decade later, Dave Jackson’s devotion to his family followed him to Jekyll Island and the Dolphin Club. In 1960, Jackson leased the Dolphin Club property from the Jekyll Island Authority. While Jackson oversaw the entire property, his sisters Annabelle Robinson and Betty Chandler managed the hotel, and his nephew James Chandler supervised the Dolphin Club Lounge. In the years that followed, the Jackson family turned the Dolphin Club into a thriving black vacation destination. As part of the Chitlin’ Circuit, a chain of venues that catered to black performers and audiences, the Dolphin Club Lounge soon attracted big name acts like B.B. King, Clarence Carter, and Percy Sledge. In 1964, Otis Redding performed at the St. Andrews Auditorium, a space built to hold larger performances and conventions on the south end of the island.

All state-owned facilities on Jekyll Island were integrated in 1964, and the Jackson family closed the Dolphin Club in 1966. In the decades since the resort’s closure, the Dolphin Club and the family who brought it so much success have become part of Jekyll Island’s history, celebrated by Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum. In 2022, Mosaic is excited to share the past 75 years of state ownership of Jekyll Island. To join in the celebration, make sure to explore upcoming programs and opportunities on the Jekyll Island website. To learn more about black history on Jekyll Island, visit the interactive timeline here.

In celebration of Black History Month and the 75th anniversary of state ownership of Jekyll Island, explore the island’s unique black history and musical history—all in one tour! Join the Dolphin Club Days guided trolley tour travels around the south end of the island and includes a musical performance by Ace Winn and refreshments on the grounds of the historic Dolphin Club and Motor Hotel. On the way back to the Mosaic, enjoy music from performers who visited the Dolphin Club and hear oral histories about what life was like on Jekyll Island in the 1950s and 1960s. The tour lasts approximately one hour and fifteen minutes and begins at Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum.

The Wanderer Memory Trail

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

By Taylor Davis, JIA Historic Preservationist

The Jekyll Island Foundation is pleased to announce the award of a grant from the Friends of Coastal Georgia History to fund upgrades and enhancements to the Wanderer Memory Trail. Located at the south end of Jekyll Island in the St. Andrews picnic area, the Trail serves as an interactive, educational experience meant to interpret the event of the ship, Wanderer, coming aground on Jekyll Island. The site is designated a ‘Site of Memory’ under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Slave Route Project, an international initiative that works to discover details about and promote awareness of the transatlantic slave trade and history of slavery.

The Wanderer was the second to last documented ship to bring an illegal cargo of people from Africa to the United States and on November 28, 1858, more than 400 enslaved Africans arrived on the shores of Jekyll Island, leaving behind one deadly journey only to begin another. Wanderer survivors consisted of kidnapped children, captive warriors, ambushed traders, and African royalty, with the majority being boys between 13 and 18 years old.

In 2018, the Jekyll Island Authority enhanced a tribute previously built in honor of the Wanderer Survivors, by replacing existing historical site markers—erected in modern day St. Andrews Beach Park where the Wanderer ran aground attempting to enter Jekyll Creek—with a permanent multimedia installation that offers greater interactive opportunities for education and understanding. Made up of eight (8) individual exhibits, the Trail walks visitors through the story of Umwalla, a young African boy brought to America on the ship, from when he was captured until he is freed. Historical information is also included along the way to aid parents/caregivers in the explanation of context and complex issues to children.

In the years since the Trail was built, the Authority has tended the exhibit, observing its usage, and seeking feedback on the guest experience. A series of enhancements and improvements were identified that take advantage of current technological advances and more effective storytelling aides to ensure visitor enjoyment as well as appropriate interpretation of complex and compelling historical and educational narratives. Improvements include an additional solar-powered audio station with new oral histories, repair of a solar panel on a current audio station, rerouting the trail to improve visitor safety while lowering the impact of visitors on the adjacent natural environment, and replacing and/or redesigning damaged (i.e., by weather) interpretive exhibits to withstand the elements and repeated interactions with visitors. Enhancements are expected to be complete by mid-spring 2022.

On your next trip to Jekyll Island be sure to visit the Wanderer Slave Ship exhibit in the Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum gallery. For more information on the Wanderer Memory Trail, click HERE.

A Story of Resistance

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

By Morgan Cantrell, JIA Museum Operations Assistant and Andrea Marroquin, Museum Curator

The Jekyll Island Authority’s museum staff employs considerable resources on researching the untold and unknown stories of Jekyll Island’s African American community. Records indicate that former enslaved men and women on Jekyll Island did not resign themselves to a life of servitude. Their unwavering efforts to escape captivity are clearly documented in newspaper advertisements. Such ads listed thorough descriptions of the individual in hopes of a hasty capture. When reading these types of ads in present day context, they reveal stories of those who risked their lives to resist slavery and pursue freedom. These narratives provide clearer insight and understanding of some of the millions of men, women, and children who suffered in bondage, including those who were enslaved on Jekyll Island.  

For instance, the stories of Alexis and Tom. On July 12, 1808, the Columbian Museum & Savannah Advertiser published an advertisement requesting the capture and return of a man named Alexis “belonging to M. Dubignon, of Jekyl Island.” The ad described his physical appearance as “a short, stout fellow, pock pitted, and about 45 years old,” noting that he “[spoke] French and English.” Another on September 15, 1810, The Republican and Savannah Evening Ledger published a listing on behalf of “captain Dubignon” requesting the apprehension of a man named Tom who was “about 36 years old; five feet, four or five inches high; has large whiskers, and is very artful.”  Both advertisements mentioned the men’s height and recognizable facial features, to aide in identification. The ad details suggest that the men possibly possessed a wider range of talent and skill that would have aided their quest for freedom.

This belief is further supported by the fact that both men attempted to flee bondage on multiple occasions. The Columbian stated that Alexis was “so constantly advertised in [the] paper that any description of him would [have been] useless.” Further, during this specific attempt at freedom, Alexis fled “from on board sloop Anubis … with a very heavy pair of irons, and the rings of a former pair” around his wrists. According to The Republican, Tom was presumed dead in 1804 after having been “shot in the shoulder” while fleeing captivity. He was later found to be alive and was returned to his enslaver on Jekyll Island. On another occasion, Tom sought freedom a second time, leaving many to believe that he drowned. He “appeared again” but did not remain in captivity long and vanished for a third time in 1810. Alexis and Tom’s tenacity showed their harrowing efforts to escape slavery on Jekyll Island and be liberated.

Are your ancestors connected to the enslaved people of Jekyll Island? If so, please share your story by contacting Andrea Marroquin.

To learn more about slavery advertisements like these, visit Freedom on the Move, an online database that compiles the narratives of self-liberating people. To learn more about the African American experience on Jekyll Island, click HERE or visit Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum.

Hear Their Stories

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

By Andrea Marroquin, JIA Museum Curator

At Mosaic, Jekyll Island Museum, a listening station in the museum gallery gives voice to people who were held in captivity on Jekyll Island during the 1800s.  Listen to these moving accounts from the past, in remembrance of Jekyll Island’s enslaved community.  Personal testimonies, based on historic letters, newspaper articles, and oral histories, detail real-life experiences of slavery from Jekyll Island’s plantation past.

Among the accounts are stories of enslaved men, women, and children, like Umwalla, brought to Jekyll Island aboard the slave ship Wanderer in 1858.  Born in Guinea, West Africa, Umwalla was kidnapped at ten years old, trapped aboard the Wanderer, and sold into slavery in America.  In 1888, he described his capture, voyage aboard the slave ship, life in slavery, and memories of home.

Today, the Wanderer Memory Trail at the south end of Jekyll Island follows in Umwalla’s footsteps, sharing the story of survivors of the slave ship Wanderer.  The trail is located at the St. Andrews Picnic Area, along the banks of the Jekyll River, where the ship illegally came ashore in 1858 with approximately 407 enslaved Africans.  

Made up of a series of interactive, self-guided exhibit stations, the Wanderer Memory Trail follows Umwalla’s journey, from Africa to Georgia and from slavery to freedom.  Stations along the trail represent the experiences of the Wanderer Survivors, including their transatlantic voyage, sale into slavery, pursuit of freedom, and lasting legacy of cherished cultural contributions.

The Wanderer Memory Trail marks a site of memory associated with the UNESCO Slave Route project.  This project endeavors to protect and promote the important contributions made by African Americans to the historical and cultural heritage in those areas where the captive Africans arrived.

To learn more about Black History on Jekyll Island or to read The Water and the Blood from 31•81, The Magazine of Jekyll Island: Vol. 3 No. 1, click HERE.

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