Idlewild: the Black Eden of Michigan

Out in the woods of Yates Township sits one of the most remarkable places in Michigan’s history: Idlewild, once known across the country as “the Black Eden.”

Idlewild was founded in 1912, in the era of Jim Crow segregation, when Black Americans were turned away from most of the nation’s resorts and vacation spots. Here, on a few small lakes carved out of the national forest, African American families could do something they couldn’t do most places: own a cottage, swim at the beach, and gather freely among their own community. Word spread, and by the 1950s Idlewild was one of the most popular resorts in the Midwest, drawing as many as 25,000 visitors at the height of the summer season from Chicago, Detroit, and beyond.

It became far more than a getaway. Doctors, lawyers, writers, and thinkers built homes here, among them the surgeon Daniel Hale Williams and the scholar W.E.B. Du Bois. And on summer nights the clubs blazed with some of the greatest names in American music, from Della Reese and Sarah Vaughan to the Four Tops and a young Aretha Franklin. For half a century, Idlewild was a center of Black culture, business, and joy.

When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 finally opened the country’s other resorts, Idlewild’s crowds thinned and the town grew quiet. But its story has not been forgotten. Idlewild is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a nationally significant site, and the Idlewild Historic and Cultural Center keeps its memory alive with exhibits, film, and music. You can visit and learn the whole story at idlewild-michigan.org.