Why Nobody Visits America's "Black Eden" Anymore: Idlewild, Michigan

On the Fourth of July in the 1950s, a Spanish-style hotel in the pine forests of northern Michigan turned away five hundred people in a single weekend. There were no rooms left anywhere. Down by the lake, the clubs were full, the cars stretched along every road, and the biggest names in American music were waiting to go on stage. Today, that same town has one restaurant left. This is the story of Idlewild — the resort that Black America built for itself, and that the rest of the country never learned to remember. Founded in 1912 by four white couples selling cheap forest land, Idlewild became the summer capital of Black America. Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, one of the first surgeons to successfully operate on the human heart, bought in early and spent his last years beside the lake. W. E. B. Du Bois came in 1921 and called it the most beautiful place he had seen in twenty years. Madam C. J. Walker called it a great national progressive movement. By the 1950s, twenty-five thousand visitors a summer came for the beaches by day and the Paradise Club by night, where Della Reese, Jackie Wilson, Sarah Vaughan, B. B. King and a young Aretha Franklin all performed. Then it ended. Not from a fire, not from a highway, not from urban renewal — but from the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the victory that generations had fought for. This documentary tells the full story: how Black Eden was built, what a Saturday night there actually felt like, why the crowds stopped coming, and what is happening today at the Hotel Casa Blanca, now one of America's eleven most endangered historic places. If your family ever made that drive north, the comment section is the place to tell it. All historical images and footage used in this video are either in the public domain, properly licensed, or used under the fair use doctrine (Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act) for purposes of historical commentary, education and research. This video contains original narration, research and editorial commentary, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any organization mentioned. If you own the rights to any material used here and believe it has been used improperly, please contact us and it will be credited or removed promptly. #BlackHistory #Idlewild #BlackEden #ForgottenPlaces #GreenBook