Oak Bluffs became a tourist destination out of necessity. Named for its scenic perch in an oak grove overlooking the Nantucket Sound, in the Atlantic Ocean, it was a haven for African-Americans during the mid-20th century when Jim Crow laws and segregation meant that black vacationers were often turned away from mainstream beaches and hotels. Oak Bluffs was the only town of the now six on Martha’s Vineyard where African-Americans were permitted to find lodging. Initially, freed slaves sought shelter there after slavery was abolished in the mid-19th century. Many worked in the fishing and whaling industry. Then, in the 1930s and ’40s, as African-Americans in urban centers like New York, Washington, D.C. and Boston began to take up jobs in professional industries and establish themselves as part of the middle and upper-middle class, they flocked to the East Coast shoreline in the summer to take in the beach and the bonfires. Today, Oak Bluffs, which sits on 7.4 square miles of land, maintains the charm of a fishing village with its colorful gingerbread cottages, pristine beaches, bustling marina and old-time seafood joints.
Despite being an important historical haven for African-Americans, Oak Bluffs is not a majority-black town. The Martha’s Vineyard Commission reports that just 3.3 percent of Oak Bluffs’ full-time residents are black. But Oak Bluffs’ popularity as a summertime destination, particularly with African-American vacationers, means that the town’s population swells from 4,647 to 20,000 in a matter of weeks, a trend that year-round residents have coined “Black August,” and which drew hordes of news reporters to the island during the Obamas’ annual pilgrimages.
African-American identity is ingrained in the community, with luminaries such as Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King Jr. and Harry Belafonte having vacationed there. One of Oak Bluffs’ most popular hangouts, Inkwell Beach, pays homage to this history, its name a reference to beachgoers’ black skin, which was said to glisten like ink in the hot sun. The name is also a nod to the town’s rich literary history. Residents and vacationers gather at Inkwell to watch fireworks on the Fourth of July, spend the day digging for clams, and light up the shore with festive bonfires at night. Every morning, the Inkwell Polar Bears, a local swimming club, splash into the cold Atlantic waters just after sunrise, soaking up the earliest rays of summer.
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Oak Bluffs is essentially defined by its seasonal surge, and there are only two seasons that matter: summertime and the rest of the year. This divide also extends to the occasional friction between year-rounders and summertime vacationers. Twenty-two-year-old Avery Hazell, a college senior who grew up full-time in Oak Bluffs, says summer people are often immune to the tension.
“Some people in Oak Bluffs hold resentment toward the summertime vacationers because they don’t understand that this is where we live,” says Hazell. “We’re not hanging out and going to the beach. We work. This is our home. Sometimes there’s this sense that the summertime vacationers are taking over.”
Gates recalls a scene from last summer when acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee threw a party at his home. Gates, who was at the party, used to work for Lee, and babysat his kids growing up. Droves of uninvited people crashed the soiree, and “it became this weird, ‘I need to be with Spike Lee’ vibe,” says Gates.
