Lincoln Beach was an

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, functioning from 1939 through 1965. The park was for the area's

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

population during the

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

era of

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

. Lincoln Beach was located along the shore of

Lake Pontchartrain Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from west ...

near Little Woods, in a portion of the

Eastern New Orleans New Orleans East is the eastern section of New Orleans, the newest section of the city. It is bounded by the Industrial Canal, the Intracoastal Waterway and Lake Pontchartrain. Developed extensively from the 1950s onward, its numerous residential ...

section of the

Ninth Ward of New Orleans The Ninth Ward or 9th Ward is a distinctive region of New Orleans, Louisiana, which is located in the easternmost downriver portion of the city. It is geographically the largest of the 17 Wards of New Orleans. On the south, the Ninth Ward is bound ...

that was little developed in the 1930s. The land where Lincoln Beach was located was deeded to the city by

Sam Zemurray Samuel Zemurray (born Schmuel Zmurri; January 18, 1877 – November 30, 1961), nicknamed "Sam the Banana Man", was an American businessman who made his fortune in the banana trade. He founded the Cuyamel Fruit Company and later became president o ...

in 1938 and purchased within a year by the

Orleans Levee Board From 1890 through 2006, the Orleans Levee Board was the body of commissioners that oversaw the Orleans Levee District (OLD) which supervised the levee and floodwall system in Orleans Parish, Louisiana (which is coextensive with the city of New Orl ...

. The Levee Board first designated this section as a

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

area in the lake for "

colored ''Colored'' (or ''coloured'') is a racial descriptor historically used in the United States during the Jim Crow, Jim Crow Era to refer to an African Americans, African American. In many places, it may be considered a Pejorative, slur, though it ...

" New Orleanians, then built out additional land in the lake for the amusement park to be built on. The park was similar to the then "whites only"

Pontchartrain Beach Pontchartrain Beach was an amusement park located in New Orleans, Louisiana, on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain. It was founded by Harry J. Batt Sr. (grandfather of American actor Bryan Batt) and later managed and owned by his sons, Harry ...

amusement park, only on a smaller scale. It featured various rides, games, restaurants, a

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

in addition to lake swimming, and frequent live music performances. In the last decade,

Fats Domino Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New O ...

, Nat King Cole, The Neville Brothers, and more performed there. Pontchartrain Beach was

desegregated Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...

in 1964 and the city stopped taking care of Lincoln Beach and it soon fell into disrepair and closed in 1965. Although there have been various proposals to redevelop the Lincoln Beach site, the decaying ruins of the park have remained vacant for decades. The history of Lincoln Beach is recounted in the book, ''The Land Was Ours: African American Beaches from Jim Crow to the Sunbelt South'' (published by

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

, 2012). In 2020, Reggie Ford, a New Orleans artist, began cleaning up the beach. Others, like Sage Michael, have joined the clean-up effort. The beach is currently clean and being used by the community with several hundred visitors on the average weekend. New Orleans Mayor

LaToya Cantrell LaToya Cantrell (''née'' Wilder; born April 3, 1972) is an American politician serving as the Mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana since May 7, 2018. A Democrat, Cantrell is the first woman to hold the office. Before becoming mayor, Cantrell repres ...

started her own assessment of the usability of the beach and has stated she finds the beach to be unsafe in its current state. Councilmember Cyndi Nguyen is supporting the project.

References

Kahrl, Andrew W, ''The Land Was Ours: African American Beaches from Jim Crow to the Sunbelt South'' (Harvard University Press, 2012)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lincoln Beach Amusement Park Amusement parks in New Orleans Defunct amusement parks in the United States 20th century in New Orleans 1939 establishments in Louisiana 1965 disestablishments in Louisiana