Field Notes Black Leisure and the Land by Willie Welch, William Gattis, and Richard Tuck

Field Notes: Black Leisure and the Land

When we think of leisure and the outdoors, the image often conjures trails, parks, picnics, and sunlit afternoons. But for many Black Americans, leisure has always carried deeper significances: a claim to space, a gesture of freedom, and a rehearsal of community belonging. As the National Park Service history of African‑American outdoor recreation shows, “leisure and recreation became … an assertion of equality, and Black leisure spaces an arena of struggle.” National Park Service

The Land as Site of Leisure and Claim

In the decades following emancipation, Black Americans sought not only economic opportunity but also spaces of leisure safe from segregation, exclusion and discrimination. The act of stepping outdoors—to picnic, to relax, to recreate—was itself political. National Park Service+1  The land, in this context, doubled as resource and refuge: a site where Black life, community, and joy could be expressed outside the confinements of work, oppression, and urban stress.

The history of this relationship is layered. On one hand, there were efforts to craft exclusive Black recreation spaces—beaches, resorts, camps, clubs—often born out of necessity when mainstream “whites only” parks and leisure destinations kept Black people out. On the other hand, there were always tensions: the land might promise