To help honor Black History Month, the Zwaanendael Museum in Lewes seeks volunteers for an oral history initiative.
The initiative is called “Recapturing Black Beaches: A Shared Story Project.”
Zwaanendael Museum lead interpreter Kaitlyn Dykes says it started in the spring 2021 as part of a much larger project.
“We were interested in creating a virtual exhibit about the many Black and Indigenous beaches of Delaware, which is a topic people don’t really know much about," Dykes said. "And in the process of the research for that exhibit, we discovered that there’s not a whole lot written down about these locations.”
But Dykes says there are many Delawareans who remember going to these beaches. And previous discussions with some of those people led the museum to dig deeper into this topic.
Dykes says they’ve identified 12 Black beaches in Delaware so far and are looking for more, “Obviously the Museum is located in Lewes, so one of the first (beaches) that we talked about was Johnny Walker Beach. But there are many, many others. In the course of our research (so far), our intern actually identified 12 beaches in Delaware that were either exclusive for Black and Indigenous people or beaches where there were specific days when folks could recreate there - depending on the color of their skin.”
Volunteers can participate as storytellers, sharing their own memories with oral history project staff, or as interviewers, recording conversations between themselves and someone they know.
To participate, volunteers can submit an online form or download a printable version and mail it to the Museum.
Both forms can be found at the following address on the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs website: https://history.delaware.gov/2021/12/10/recapturing-the-stories-of-black-beaches/. Printed forms should be mailed to the Zwaanendael Museum, 102 Kings Highway, Lewes, DE 19958 or sent via email to Zmuseum@delaware.gov.
The stories will be used for educational purposes.
