Established in 1915 by white developers Adelbert and Erastus Branch of White Cloud and Wilbur Lemon and Alvin Wright of Chicago, Idlewild became a summer resort for African Americans at a time when segregationist policies limited their vacation options. Promoted in magazines such as Ebony and newspapers including the Chicago Defender, it attracted African American members of the middle and professional classes as well as black intellectuals such as Charles Chesnutt. Beginning in 1915, visitors came from throughout the country, especially the Midwest, for beaches, boating, and other summer diversions, and by the 1920s and into the 1960s its lively nightlife, elaborate floorshows, and popular black entertainers drew large crowds. The Arthur Braggs Idlewild Revue carried its name across the country during the off-season. Idlewild grew to about four square miles, and during the early 1960s summer holidays brought more than 25,000 people. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 opened previously whites-only resorts to black travelers, Idlewild's heyday ended, but it remained the largest African American resort in the nation.