The first oceanfront community where Black North Carolinians could have home ownership takes the spotlight Saturday in Topsail Beach.
The Historical Society of Topsail Island is set to open its newest exhibit “Ocean City Beach,” at the Missiles and More Museum at 720 Channel Blvd.
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The museum is hosting an open house from 3 until 5 p.m. so that guests may meet members of the historic community that continues to thrive on Topsail Island.
Ocean City was established in 1949 after Edgar L. Yow, a white Wilmington attorney, initiated a plan to establish an area on Topsail Island where Black families could buy oceanfront property.
The community was developed by Wade H. Chestnut Sr., who sold his interest in his family’s auto repair business in Wilmington to build the beach community for his and other Black families to enjoy.
The milelong stretch of land within North Topsail Beach became part of the N.C. Civil Rights Trail in 2022.
The community is celebrated annually during the Ocean City Jazz Festival, a nonprofit event held each Independence Day weekend to, among such goals as elevating jazz appreciation and boosting the economy, seeks to “inspire a new generation culturally through the history of the Ocean City Beach Community.”
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This year’s festival is July 5-7.
