Sombreros and Motorcycles in a Newer South by P. Nicole King

Author:P. Nicole King
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 2012-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

NEON MOTORCYCLES BY THE SEA

The Atlantic Beach Bikefest Controversy Refashions the Grand Strand

While the Atlantic Beach Bikefest has yet to restore the Black Pearl’s past luster, it does constitute a lively event whereby the town’s past overlaps with the complexities of today’s black motorcycle subcultures. The motorcycle festival has garnered the town both positive and negative publicity. The few available histories of Atlantic Beach often conclude the town’s story with a reference to the motorcycle festival; however, the festival is the beginning of a new story connected to the town’s past. The founding of the Atlantic Beach Bikefest adds another layer to the town’s history.1 The motorcycle festival offers hope for the town both because the event permits Atlantic Beach to act as a location for the growth and diversification of African American leisure culture, and because it and brings back the lively, crowded streets, blasting music, and sidewalk vendors so fondly recollected by early inhabitants of the town. However, the controversy surrounding the festival, beginning in the late-1990s, also exemplifies a refashioned racism that plagues the Newer South.

Two motorcycle festivals are held annually in the Grand Strand region during the month of May. The Harley-Davidson motorcycle festival, which began in 1940, is predominantly white, occurs for ten days in the middle of May, and is commonly referred to as “Bike Week.” The Atlantic Beach Bikefest, which began in 1980, is predominately black, takes place over the Memorial Day weekend, features Japanese speed bikes rather than Harleys, and is often referred to as “Black Bike Week.” As is often the case, an event characterized by whiteness is invisible and presented as the norm, while any non-white alternative is considered secondary or “other.”

The Atlantic Beach motorcycle festival was the brainchild of the Carolina Knight Riders Motorcycle Club and Atlantic Beach councilman John Skeeters. The club, which began in 1977 as the Flaming Knight Riders, received a charter in 1982 and became the Carolina Knight Riders of North Myrtle Beach Motorcycle Club. The club’s purpose is to “promote the social welfare of its members and to uphold the highest standards and best traditions of the community.” The motorcycle club is open to anyone, but it primarily consists of adult black men who ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles (the Japanese speed bikes came later), though black women are also members of the club and hold office. When the black motorcyclists wanted to start a rally, “they had no place to go except the town of Atlantic Beach.” The event began as a small festival and parade on Memorial Day weekend where revelers “ate chicken bog, danced, and vied for trophies in contests for the best looking motorcycle.” In the 1980s, the Carolina Knight Riders and the town of Atlantic Beach “parted ways when their ideas didn’t match,” meaning that while the Carolina Knight Riders wanted a motorcycle event, the town wanted to “turn it into a social event.” The dispute stems from conflicting perspectives concerning what was more central to the event: motorcycles or the town itself.

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