Prince Edward State Park for Negroes

In 1950, Prince Edward Lake Recreation Area became Prince Edward State Park for Negroes, Virginia's eighth state park and at that time the only one accessible to African Americans. During segregation, the site served as a refuge for freedom. After the devastating 1929 stock market crash, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps as a work relief program for young men on public conservation projects. Nearby Camp Gallion, home of CCC Company No. 1390, was one of the few all-African American units in the state. Between 1933 and 1941, the company built numerous trails, fire roads, and bridges, and in 1939 completed the dams that created Prince Edward and Goodwin lakes. For more than a decade, the lakes operated as racially segregated recreation areas, with Prince Edward Lake reserved for African Americans and Goodwin Lake for whites. In 1948, after Maceo Conrad Martin was denied admission to a Virginia state park because of his race, he hired civil rights attorney Oliver Hill, and together they brought suit against the commonwealth challenging its whites-only state park policy. The judge sided with Martin, and Prince Edward Lake Recreation Area was elevated to full state park status. In 1949, Governor William Tuck appropriated $195,000 to expand facilities at Prince Edward Lake, including cabins, a bathhouse, and a concession area, completing Prince Edward State Park for Negroes. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 legally ended segregation, and in 1976 the two recreation areas were merged as Prince Edward-Goodwin Lake State Park. In 1986, the site was renamed Twin Lakes State Park.

Virginia · United States