Springfield Baptist Church met every 4th Sunday when I was growing up there. The Atkinson family was a staple in the community. However, most of them had moved away when I was a teenager; they returned often and owned several acres of land in Springfield.
Every May was the Church anniversary, Homecoming was the 4th weekend in August, and the Atkinson was there. Mother Bessie, with her quick smile, warm hugs, and humility, was always loving and kind, the children friendly and full of character. I don’t remember her husband very well. He passed in 1972, three years before I would graduate, but I knew he was a Tuskegee Airman cause his son Charles told me so. They never bragged or boasted about him, just kept a low profile, so imagine my surprise when I was invited to Memories Day at George Washington Carver State Park to honor Bessie Evans Atkinson and learned he was the person responsible for the first African-American State Park in Georgia, affectionately called “The Beach. “
The event was held on February 16, 2018. Mother Bessie had transitioned only six months earlier, on August 17, 2017, at the age of 92, and I was still feeling her absence. She was one of those people who was always glad to see you. She opened her home on Simpson Rd to serve dinner for the Springfield Atlanta Club fundraising group. Always involved in supporting Springfield, she was eager to help.
In our last conversation, we talked for hours. She’d graduated from the Springfield Log School class of 1943, and I wanted to hear her experience. She had an excellent memory and shared everything from her classmates to the educators and furthering her education in Atlanta, Georgia. Unable to find someone to ride with me, I went alone to Memories Day in Bartow County. It was a peaceful drive through the winding and beautiful countryside. I was reminded of these words of Timothy Houston, Sr.
“We had our own Beach called George Washington Carver; it was at Red Top, and it was nice. It was a real nice facility and I remember we used to sit around the porch at my moms’. We lived right up from Cherokee Street and that was the only way through; I-75 wasn’t here then and that was the only way people come from Atlanta and Marietta, to get to Red Top Mountain. We would sit there on Sundays and you could count the vehicles; it would be ten or fifteen chartered buses. That is when we seen actual black people in real nice cars. They would come in their nice cars like a convoy going to the Beach, going to George Washington Carver. That was every Sunday; people coming from all over. That was the only black Beach in the area. You go out there and they had a huge hall, they had a kitchen and a big dance floor and then you had the Beach where you would swim. It was really nice.”
Arriving at the Beach, I saw Bessie’s daughter and granddaughter unloading the car, and I stopped to help. People were unloading their vehicles as well and setting up tables for displays. This was the community center; it had a full kitchen and serving area. The speakers and display tables were set up around the edge of the wall.
Politicians, Judges, Educators, Businessmen, women, and preservationists represented the Rosenwald school in the area. Everyone knew the Atkinson children and greeted us fondly, which made me feel right at home, even though I was a distant relative.
The program started after lunch: skits, lectures, dances, songs, and stories of the Beach and the Atkinson. It was a celebration. When the time came for the tree planting ceremony, they asked Charles Henry Atkinson to speak; he called me to talk about Springfield, where his parents, John Loyd and Bessie Evans Atkinson, were born and buried. I hadn’t expected to be called and hadn’t prepared anything, but I did my best. By now, it was evening, and I had to leave to make the long drive back to feed my dogs; I stopped at the area where the tree would be planted. Excited from all I had learned, I seemed to float home.
The Beach
The Beach was the name Black people gave the George Washington Carver State Park. The 345 acres were leased by John Loyd Atkinson from the Army Corp of Engineers in 1950. Governor Herman Talmadge made Atkinson the First Superintendent, a title he would hold until 1958. It was a place where African Americans came to have fun. It was clean and isolated from the hate and ignorance of the 50’s and 60’s. A place like Amelia’s Island where a Black Family could find “recreation and relaxation without humiliation.”
I had heard Dr. King Jr often stayed at Dorchester Academy in Midway, Georgia and wrote his famous speech there, but I learned he frequented the Beach and spent many days. Ray Charles and Little Richard were also known to visit the Beach.
To build the Beach, Atkinson was said to have hauled tons of sand in his pickup truck to the area. He made a clubhouse, Beach house, playground, boat ramp, concession stand, and a summer
house for his family to live in while there.
Obtaining permission to create a place for Blacks wasn’t easy, but John Loyd Atkinson was no stranger to challenges; in 1941, he’d purchased land to build a home in Atlanta, Georgia, and was ordered by the police to stay out because the property was located on the white side. He was not allowed into his home for two years, which led to his joining the Air Force as a Tuskegee Airman. He sued, and the Georgia Supreme Court case Atkinson v England (1942) was settled out of court with the help of Mayor William B. Hartford, changing the law for all Blacks to build on the land where they purchased property.
The more I discover about my family, the more I appreciate all they have accomplished within their family and the community, and it makes me want to do more for humanity. #respect and Love
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