Tag: The Dolphin Club

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.