Introduction

Jim Crow was a period of racial segregation that lasted from the late 19th century until the 1960s. During this time, Black folks’ lives were dictated by both de facto and de jure segregation. Having to live a life based on deference, living as a Black person was difficult. During post-Civil War America, there was a brief period of time when segregation did not exist. After Plessy v. Ferguson was decided in 1896, segregation became part of America and part of American culture with the motto “separate but equal” that quickly spread. Black folks were not allowed to hold their existence in spaces that enforced laws, rules, regulations, and customs aimed to go against their humanity. Largely implemented around America in public facilities such as restaurants, parks, schools, gas stations, and hotels, Jim Crow was a way to maintain white supremacy to strip away individual freedoms and dignities of everyday life. Nonetheless, Black leisure continued to be practiced by Black folks, becoming a form of resistance against white supremacy and white America. While navigating this website, you will find places in the U.S. where Black folks practiced leisure. You will be able to actively follow this website as a map and travel guidebook to lead you through the history of Black leisure and tourism in the United States.

Understanding Black history is as important now as it was in the 30’s to 60’s; however, it is not a surprise that this historical information is difficult to access, as it is often left out of American history. In addition to written archival material such as travel guides, photographs can be a great source of historical knowledge that has preserved and given power to the reality of Black life. Photography became a way for Black people to see themselves “represented in [their] images not as caricatures, cartoonlike figures,” but rather in their “full diversity of body, being, and expression, multidimensional.”² The photos that Black folks captured allowed for the freedom of expression without the “limits of the colonizing eye,” creating a form of resistance to misrepresentation and white supremacy.² These visual representations of natural life and leisure empowered Black folks to document and share “recuperative, redemptive memory” within the community to develop their own histories.² In addition to empowering Black folks themselves, these photographs allow us to see and understand Black life and Black history outside of the racist monolith imposed by white supremacy.