Also this issue: Free-Wheeling -Jesse Delaney On the D.L. -Ainé Ardron-Doley Blue In The Face -A.D. Amorosi

January 23-29, 2003

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Stompin' at the Shore

It may not have been the Savoy, but Atlantic City exerted a powerful draw for African Americans who moved there to live and work in the early part of the 20th century: The communities built up on the north side by new arrivals were close-knit, and by 1910, 25 percent of the city's population was African-American. While segregation was still enforced, restricting black visitors to areas near Missouri Avenue, these black neighborhoods nevertheless became alternative pockets of nightlife, in turn attracting African-American tourists and a wide variety of stars: Some, such as Sammy Davis Jr., came to perform to an exultant crowd; others, such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., planned a vacation there. An extensive exhibition, "Stompin' at the Shore," curated by the Atlantic City Historical Society and now on show in Cape May, explores this extraordinary slice of African-American history, unearthing photographs -- such as one of Davis (above) spending time with friends on Chicken Bone Beach, where large crowds congregated for picnics, as well as 60 other pieces of memorabilia. A sign advertising Issy Bushkoff's Club Esquire in Wildwood boasted a show "starring Birmingham of Charlie Chan Pictures and Bill Bailey, Pearl Bailey's brother."

Runs through May 4, Carriage House Gallery, 1048 Washington St., Cape May, N.J., 609-884-5404.

—Juliet Fletcher