Fontaine Ferry

[Coney Islander]

For those of you who didn't have the chance to experience the classic Amusement Park...

Very comparative to how Coney Island of Ohio appeared, in the early days.

[The Interpreter]

As you watch the vintage clips included in the museum exhibit ads, you will note a definite lack of color or diversity in the park's attendance. A factor that contributed to the park's eventual demise...

It was a very sad end to what was once a grand place...and it was not the only park with the whites only policies that it had until nearly its end...

http://www.KICentral...=1entry312069

As I said then, this is NOT the place for a political discussion, and I don't intend this to start one. I do think it important that we know the history of the business that entertains and excites us all here. And it is not all pretty. Much of it is. Some of it is not.

If you are interested, see especially:

http://www.louisvillemojo.com/blogs/Louisville_Blogs/84680/Weep_Not_for_Six_Flags__but_for_Fontaine_Ferry

[Guest rcfreak339]

I have had the pleasure to visit the museum a while back and it's a great exhibit. if only it stayed open who knows as to where it would be now. I sometimes talk to my grandmother about how she as a young girl growing up in Louisville and some days after school it would just be a place to hang around and just have fun.

[markr]

I agree with you Terpie. Although this is not a forum for political discussion, we should know the full truth about Coney Island's history of segregation. I recall when I was in college, I had a summer job and my boss was African American. I remember that I reminisced about Coney Island. Imagine my chagrin when I found out he could not share the same memories with me because he was banned from the park because of the color of his skin. It still makes me sad that a lot of African Americans of my parents' generation were robbed of such wonderful memories because of this shameful history.

[The Interpreter]

It was the same at most parks. Camden Park, in Huntington, West Virginia, for example, had "Negro Day" one day each year (which, sadly, was more than most parks did). The rest of the year, blacks simply were not admitted. Period. And on "Negro Day," whites were not allowed in the park unless they worked there.