BLACK HISTORY: The history of Freeman Beach

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY)- Freeman Beach heir Bill Freeman and his daughter Elise Muhammad stopped by our WWAY studios to talk with Amanda Fitzpatrick about the history of Freeman Beach, now known as Freeman Park.

Here’s the story as told by Bill Freeman,

It was one of the few beaches that blacks could go and enjoy themselves. We had a beach with  a restaurant, a dance hall with food and service provided by Uncle Frank, Aunt Lula and the locals of Sea Breeze. I worked the parking lot as a youngster.  Aunt Lula and Uncle Frank were both from Wilmington.  They moved to New York during the 30-40’s and by 1950 bought their savings of $30,000 and built Monte Carlo by the Sea on Freeman Beach.  Black people now had a very fine place to go dance, eat AND enjoy the beach.  Big name artists and entertainers came there to perform and enjoy themselves with the locals.began with his ancestors buying land.  He also says, Freeman Beach is just a small part of the thousands of acres of land that was acquired by Alexander Freeman, Robert Bruce Freeman Sr. and heirs; a Black Native family found in southeastern North Carolina since at least the 1700’s.  An 1888 local newspaper writes that Archie Freeman, one of Alexanders sons, had a “dining” room at the beach. Ellis Freeman did the same in the early to mid 1900’s and then in 1951, one of Alexander’s grand daughters, Lula Freeman Hill and her husband and Frank Hill built a dance hall, restaurant, bath facilities and a rock parking lot.  It was called Bop City/ Monte Carlo By the Sea and was located at Freeman Beach.

For those visiting and enjoying the dancing and food during the 50’s; yes.  Geographically it is just separated by a bit of water.  Freeman Beach is the side that sits right on the ocean.  Sea Breeze sits on a shore fed by the ocean.  When Carolina Beach wouldn’t allow blacks to come on to the beach via the bridge and through the town, we used small boats to take them across the inlet to get to Freeman Beach/Bop City.  When Bop City was destroyed by Hazel in 1954, Aunt Lula and Uncle Frank didn’t rebuild, but other Freeman’s and business owners of Sea Breeze did rebuild.

What happened to the land of Freeman Beach? 

Jim Crow type policies and laws that prohibited blacks from owning, selling renting or visiting the beach – which was Freeman property. There was a time that although Freemans owned beach land, these practices prohibited blacks from coming across the bridge – which by the way – was built on land previously owned by the Freemans. Imminent domain was used to get the land to build the bridge. We know that at least 195 acres was sold to the government in 1954.  This caused a bit of frustration and likely precipitated some of the land sales that we see during that time.  There was also a lot of land loss in the early 1900’s when the real estate, banking and judicial system cooperated and caused foreclosures, deals that were more like forced sales and trickery. We lost a lot of land in the early 1900’s including acreage at the beach.

Hurricanes hurt the beach, the major one being Hazel in 1954, about 4 years after Uncle Frank and Aunt Lula erected Monte Carlo by the Sea it was destroyed.  Other businesses had insurance and could rebuild. We did not have that benefit.  There was also a big storm in 1902 after which Robert Bruce Freeman rode a horse all night to Wilmington to get medical help for those hurt on the Beach.

The man made canal known as Snows Cut also hurt it. It was formed for commercial fishing purposes and caused us to lose hundreds of acres of Freeman Beach to erosion.  Uncle Franks daughter, attorney Evelyn Williams fought to get justice for that land loss and although it was proven that the land loss was a result of the inlet, the family never received compensation.

It is ironic even now, this land at Freeman Beach is still at the center of controversy as the town of Carolina Beach wrestles with private owners about the use of the land.  Freeman LLC is NOT a group of Freeman Family members. Much of that land has long since been removed from our hands, but we are about to place monument on Freeman Beach in honor of all that our ancestors owned, all that they did to add to the lives of the people of the area. We want to help ensure that our children remember that if we did it before, they can do it now.  Get some land and do something that you can call your own.