WoodTV.com |Ottawa County | July 27, 2023 | Kyle Mitchell
HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) — An exhibit opening Friday at the Holland Museum will showcase the history of Idlewild, a popular resort community for Black people when segregation denied them service at many other destinations.
The Holland Museum exhibit titled “Black Eden: Idlewild Past, Present, and Future” has a number of items on display, like a replica of the “Green Book” travel guide, where Idlewild was listed. The items are on loan from Chris CJ Kingdom-Grier, a collector who grew up in Idlewild and inspired the museum to pursue a display.
Ricki Levine, the executive director of the museum, said the exhibit highlights the historical significance of the community.
“It came about in the early 1900s and it was really a reaction to the Jim Crow movement. There were so many places that Black people, African Americans, could not go. They didn’t have places to vacation. They didn’t have places where they felt really comfortable in their own skin,” Levine said.
The exhibit also shows some of the big stars who performed at Idlewild and a quilt from a church there showing names of people who lived in the area during the period it was popular.
“People could find a place where they could own property, where they could relax, where they could entertain, where they could commune with nature, with one another. It’s a very faith-based community to start with and that’s really the origin of it and it thrived,” Levine said. “Middle-class Black people, for the most part, were coming from different parts of the country and learning how to get to different places where they could be safe and be safe along the route.”
The exhibit will coincide with other events like music, a conversation with people from the area and a bus tour.
Curators hope exhibit will make a lasting impact on those who see it.
“Also, to get a sense of the why — and you’ll ascertain that from a number of different things in the exhibit — why this place existed, why the people that made it into their community did so, why it’s relevant today, too,” Levine said.
Efforts are also underway to restore and preserve Idlewild for future generations.
“It should be something that’s revitalized and used today as much as it was in its heyday,” Levine said.
