How welcome do Black people feel in Ocean City? | Down the Shore

They arrived for religious reasons, like Ocean City’s white Methodist fathers. Ocean City’s Black founders came to Ocean City, established churches, built families, bought and sold property, vacationed, hosted prominent visitors.

The story is captured in riveting detail in Loretta Thompson Harris’ new book, The Westside: Ocean City in True Color.

Harris recovers some amazing history. The first salt water taffy store in Ocean City was opened by Jacob Still. Harris’ father’s construction company designed and rebuilt the fishing pier after the 1962 storm.

The Stills were one of the earliest Black families to arrive in Ocean City. In 1893, Jacob Still opened Still’s, in the Brower Building at Eighth and the boardwalk, which Harris says is the city’s earliest taffy shop.

But there was a deathbed mystery.

“The fate of Jacob’s taffy recipe is unknown,” Harris writes. “Oral history cannot decide whether the recipe was sold on Jacob’s deathbed or stolen.”

The city was founded in 1879 and the first person of color came in 1884, Harris told me.

Here is my full interview with Harris, a fourth-generation Ocean City native.

Harris remembers being chased by lifeguards as a child back to what was then Ocean City’s Black beach, between 5th and 6th Streets, if she and friends strayed over the line.

Fast-forward to today, the debate over just how welcoming these beach towns are for Black shoregoers continues. Kwasa Mathis, WURD marketing director, spoke on air over the winter about her “less than super-positive” experiences in Ocean City.

“It’s kind of unfortunate,” she told me this week (scroll to the end of this newsletter ⬇️ for more of our chat). “For me, born and raised in New Jersey, I’m going to go to the beach regardless. My tax dollars go toward some of those beaches. I’ll continue to say hi to people. I don’t let those experiences steal my joy.”

📮 Let me know what you think and I’ll include your most interesting responses by replying to this email.

⛈️ Skies look a little changeable heading into the weekend, but you never know down here; sometimes post-storm weather (when everyone has left) can be magical.

If someone forwarded you this email, sign up here for free. Now, onto the rest of the newsletter. ⬇️

— Amy S. Rosenberg (🐦 Tweet me at @amysrosenberg. 📷 Follow me on Insta at @amysrosenberg. 📧 Email me at downtheshore@inquirer.com)

🥳 Brigantine blowout Is Brigantine the new Miami Beach? Residents of 20th Street told Selena Vazquez about all-night Airbnb parties.

🎐 What next? Frank Kummer writes about clinging jellyfish in the bay.

📱 Vexed by Verizon People in Belmar don’t want Verizon to place 20 cell phone towers along the beach promenade.

🛝 Water view Bart Blatstein is hosting a preview party (but no water activities) in his Island Water Park in Atlantic City, but an opening date still has not been set.

🚫 Circuit sense The Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld New Jersey’s law against carrying weapons in “sensitive” public places like parks, zoos, libraries, casinos, and beaches.

🐋 Whales alive! People in Spring Lake were treated to the sight of a breaching blue whale.

🏎️ DEEM Enterprises The company developing Bader Field into sustainable, auto-centric housing is moving ahead with its $3.2 billion plan and taking over A.C.’s Skate Zone (but promising to relocate it).

🚨 Inside City Hall Ventnor Code Enforcement’s record-keeping is under investigation by the Atlantic County prosecutor.

🚦Traffic on LBI is rough this summer, due to construction on Route 72. People reported on Facebook that it was taking an hour or two just to get off the island.

🎒 Teen tomfoolery was under wraps in Ocean City over Father’s Day weekend, with increased police presence and 8 p.m. closing of beach entrances with orange-and-white striped barriers.

🚉 Get down the Shore on any budget.

🐬 Watch for dolphins! Rita Giordano has a lovely essay about watching dolphins in the wild (they’re out there).

🍕 Pizza box art (the sequel) opens Friday at Union Hall Arts in A.C. next to Tony’s Baltimore Grill.

✒️ Write poetry. Cape May’s poet laureate Sylvia Baer is hosting workshops at the Physick Estate.

🫐 Soulberri, Super Bowl champ James Develin’s Brigantine smoothie shop, is expanding to Ocean City.

🐚 Take a guided beach walk with the Marine Mammal Stranding Center.

🚜 Blue-ribbon beach Rodgers & Hammerstein’s State Fair is at Beach Haven’s Surflight Theatre.

🍅 Just try to get a reservation at Margate’s Steve & Cookies. Comedian Cheri Oteri couldn’t even do it.

Last week’s question stumped quite a few. Doug Deutsch was first with Brigantine, the correct answer to where then-President Obama and then-Gov. Christie headed to after Hurricane Sandy and their famous sorta hug. They landed at A.C.’s International Airport, but Christie, feuding with Atlantic City’s leaders, bypassed the resort.

❓This week’s question: Which Philly-area musician wrote these lyrics while visiting Ocean City?

I was on the beach but I was thinking about the bay

Got to the bay but by then I was far away

A. Taylor Swift

B. Adam Weiner

C. Kurt Vile

D. Bruce Springsteen

First correct answer gets a shout-out. Send your answer by replying to this email.

Question: What do I do with that lovely kohlrabi I just bought at the Farmers Market?

Glad you asked! Actually, I ask myself this every summer after getting amazing kohlrabi from the Potato Homestead. Last year, I made kohlrabi slaw, a bit labor intensive. This year, with some cooler weather, I found this Melissa Clark recipe for caramelized kohlrabi soup, and it was amazing. I didn’t bother with the lemon or Parmigiano, and blended only partially. I sautéed the greens with garlic oil to put on top. Seriously, try this.

Have a favorite summer recipe? Let us know!

Kwasa Mathis is director of marketing and growth at WURD (900 AM / 96.1 FM) in Philadelphia. Over the winter, as a producer for the Solomon Jones show, Mathis spoke on air about going to Ocean City and how she has felt, at times, less than welcome as a Black person. Jones said he hadn’t had a similar experience.

I rang up Mathis this week.

You say you’re a “Jersey girl through and through,” and have spent a lot of time going to Ocean City. But your comments on WURD were definitely not, as you put it, super-positive.

I grew up in South Jersey. I’m familiar with Ocean City, going there as a child, playing in the water, all of that. I was naive as a little kid. I didn’t notice or recognize some of those microaggressions, or small acts of racism.

You say hi to people walking down the street, and people won’t speak. I won’t name-drop, but there’s a very popular pizza establishment in Ocean City, and I know that there were several times when myself and friends of mine would go into that particular establishment, and not be seated as quickly as other people who might have come behind us. When going into a jewelry store, I was followed around the store by some of the staff.

Many of these Shore towns have rich Black histories. Why does it seem so different now?

The population has dwindled. People are getting priced out of some of these cities. Growing up, I did see a little more diversity, even in regards to the shops.

A lot of middle-class people in general feel excluded from the Shore these days.

If you think about it, too, you had a lot of people in the white community who owned some of those shops, had some of those houses out there. You’d be able to go and enjoy yourself every summer. We’re seeing a class shift and also a shift in regards to race when talking about Ocean City.

You have Black families who can most certainly afford a condo or a time-share. They don’t put their money into places where you’re not going to feel welcome. Why spend hard-earned money in Ocean City, N.J. when you can spend hard-earned money in Ocean City, Md.?

Gwen Jones captures the wistfulness so many feel as memories, rituals, landmarks, and, alas, people, slip away.

My siblings and I sold the family shore house in Beach Haven Crest my grandfather bought 65 years earlier when our parents were both gone in 2017. It broke my heart to sell what had been such an integral part of my life, but the Island had changed to the point of being unrecognizable. Our neighbors and neighborhood was vanishing to the point that as of this day is gone. No more Cape Cods and Craftsman cottages, no Joey’s Pizza, no gas station, no deli for bagels and coffee, and the biggest blow, no beating heart of the neighborhood, Kubel’s Too. Our family home, the site of two weddings, many family reunions, and the site of so many happy memories, is now three soulless boxes called “houses.” They will never be the homes we knew. My heart is still in the Island, but it now beats in the occasional day trip to Harvey Cedars. And we always bring a lunch.

📮 Send me your Shore moments and memories for a chance to be featured here.

⛅ See you next week! And watch for those clearing skies.

-Amy