Full of exciting rides, games, and prizes, amusement parks hold a special place in our hearts. But nothing is amusing about what some of these parks did to sell tickets.
#1: Coney Island - One of the park’s most popular attractions in the 1910s was African Dodger, shockingly known as Hit The Nigger Baby or Hit The Coon. A person would get three chances to hit a live Black person with a ball to win a prize. Despite a push to get this game banned, local newspapers didn’t see anything wrong with it.
#2: Six Flags - In the 1960s, the Six Flags in Texas had a sickening nostalgia for the antebellum South. It had an amphitheater that resembled a plantation house, alongside Naler’s Chicken Plantation, a “Southern” restaurant. Park staff dressed as Confederate soldiers, and the Confederate flag flew high at the park entrance.
#3: DisneyLand - From the 1950s to 1970s, Disneyland in Anaheim, California, had its own Aunt Jemima Pancake House. A Black woman named Aylene Lewis dressed as the racist caricature Aunt Jemima greeted and sang to customers. She even posed for pictures with them.
Our history has had its ups and downs, but our suffering isn’t a joyride. Preserving and controlling our history is central, because we’re the conductors. So let’s use our history to coast to liberation.