Chicken Bone Beach

You won’t believe this but back in the 1930’s, the AC beachfront was as segregated as the south. They even had a Colored Life Guard Station (my Dad while in med school worked there one season as a beach doctor). The part that was reserved for us Blacks was just in front of the Convention Hall and south of Heinz Million Dollar Pier at not so ironically Mississippi Ave. It was nicknamed “chickenbone beach”.? Why, later!

The funny thing was you could walk the shore line from the inlet to Mississippi ave , but you couldn’t stop on the actual beach in front of the exclusive hotels and cabanas

In the summer, as kids we just roamed the boardwalk and beach. The older kids shined shoes up on the boards and we little ones trailed along dashing under the boardwalk with tea strainers copped from the kitchen sifting for coins that fell through the spaces in the deck above, scurrying like little beach rats that we were, eluding the Beach Patrol that tried to shoo us away.
All summer, we out and about turning darker with the sun and salt, up before dawn until well after dark surviving on our wit and guile; since our parents worked long hours.
We hustled tourist and found coins and swiped potatoes and dug clams and built fire pits out near the back bay to cook hobo meals, as I remember they were pretty good. If we had a quarter we got half a Hero sandwich from the White House Sub shop which even today are the best I’ve ever tasted. were . I got one of the worse whipping from my momma when she found out I had told my Uncle Clarence I had made all “E’s” on my report card to get a quarter for a sub. Never thought he would ask to see the card, revealing I had lied
Now back to the beach and the name. As I related earlier AC was the summer destination of wealthy whites, especially Jews who spent their summer at the shore.
Blacks along the East coast and other destinations also sought to vacation at this seashore resort.
The city was filled with numerous rooming houses that rented by the week or summer and one hotel as I remember the “Liberty”. There were trains and buses from NYC, Philly, Baltimore, DC and destinations up and down the east coast that every weekend spilled literally thousands into this jumping city. After a day at the beach, the Black city pulsed all night as the clubs, like Club Harlem, Blue Flame and after hours joints came alive.
Now the people who came to AC to were coming from long distances and many brought packed lunches to picnic on the beach. And one of the least perishable foods was fried chicken. And forevermore it became known as“ chickenbone beach” I bet if they had an archeological dig there centuries from now, the consensus would be that the society that existed had been sustained by lowly the chicken and there would be no evidence that whites were ever present since their elegant beach foods would not be traceable.