This brief sets out the documented record: what the beach was, what replaced it, what the community asked for in writing, how the Chicago Park District answered — and the one commitment in that answer which has now come due and gone unmet. Every claim is sourced to a named document. Everything we could not verify is marked as unverified.
A commons is being converted into a revenue site
Nobody signed an order abolishing the drum circle. What happened is smaller and harder to fight: a series of ordinary administrative decisions — a budget line, a parking contract, a fence, an enforcement priority — each defensible on its own, which together made it impractical for working South Siders to gather for free on land their taxes maintain.
The 63rd Street Beach House was finished in 1919 by the South Park Commission's in-house architects: an exposed-aggregate concrete pavilion in the Classical Revival style, with open loggias built to catch the lake breeze. It sits in Jackson Park, laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in 1871. [1]
That same summer, seventeen-year-old Eugene Williams drifted across an unmarked color line at the 29th Street Beach and was stoned in the water until he drowned. The riot that followed ran from July 27 to August 3, 1919 and killed 38 people. Between one and two thousand Chicagoans, most of them Black, lost their homes. [2] Chicago's lakefront was never neutral ground. It was taken, foot by foot, by people who were told it was not theirs.
By 1970, drummers were meeting almost daily at 63rd Street. They have kept that up for fifty-five years. Then two administrative decisions landed six months apart. In January 2025 the lakefront parking rate more than doubled by budget action. On 7 July 2025 an entry gate was activated at the beach house lot and snow fencing went up around the lawn. The circle did not convene again that season. [8] [3]
What followed is the part worth studying. The community did everything an advisory-council system asks of it. They came to the August meeting. They won a unanimous vote to be heard. They submitted nine written requests. The council passed a resolution. The Park District's chief executive replied in writing, conceded a communications failure, and promised the lawn back for the 2026 season. That season is now over and the fencing is still standing.
What the commons was — and what replaced it
Read each row across. On the left, the arrangement that produced a fifty-five-year cultural institution. On the right, the arrangement now in force.
The Commons
through June 2025The Enclosure
July 2025 →In 2024 the first hour cost $2.00. A full day was $21.00. Enforcement was by meter and pay box, and it was uneven.
[8]A $2 increase on every lakefront metered lot was approved in the Park District's 2025 Annual Budget and took effect in January. Add the City's 23.25% parking tax and the first hour becomes $4.07 — more than double. The day rate reaches $23.40.
[8]An open lot. A family could pull in, unload a cooler and a set of congas, and stay. Elders parked close to the circle and carried their drums a few yards.
Community description — not a documented claimAn entry gate activated on 7 July 2025, with licence-plate readers and an app. A 15-minute grace period, then the clock runs — including if you never leave the car. The District says signage went up on 22 May and that it delayed activation past the July 4th holiday at the 5th Ward Office's request.
[8] [4]Open grass beside the circle painted red, black and green on the sidewalk. People brought chairs. Children wandered up to the drums; drummers handed them sticks. The Metropolitan Planning Council recognised the circle in 2008 for exactly this.
[3]Informal, low-capital Black enterprise: grills, coolers, ice, water, incense, oils, CDs, hand drums. Money made by neighbours, from neighbours, on a Saturday, with no rent and no licence fee to clear first.
Community description — not a documented claimThe District cites “a notable increase in unauthorized vendors, including those selling liquor and operating large propane fryers” among the reasons for the gate. Those are real hazards — and they are a licensing problem, not an access problem.
Enclosure does not end commerce here. It reroutes it: the District projects roughly $9 million in parking fees, collected through a private operator.
[8] [3]A public agency, answerable to a park advisory council and a ward office, operating a public lot on public land.
Community description — not a documented claimA private parking-management company, SP+, operating on the Metropolis platform. To enter the lot at 63rd you now download an app and hand a private firm a payment method. The lakefront has been paid parking since May 2009; what changed is who collects and how automatically.
[4]Fifty-five years of continuous, visible, documented use. The drummers were not a secret; local officials call the site “Bongo Beach.”
[3]The drummers say they received no notice. The Jackson Park Advisory Council formally recorded that it was “disappointed that neither the drummers nor this council were consulted before this system was implemented.”
The District's answer: signage at the lot entrance and at every meter on 22 May 2025, plus notice to the 5th Ward Office. It also conceded it “must improve communication, particularly when changes may affect longstanding community traditions.”
[7] [8]In 2016, the median single-family home in Woodlawn sold for $72,500. The people at the circle mostly lived within walking distance of it.
[5]By 2025 that median was $330,000 — 4.6× higher. In East Woodlawn, nearest the Obama Presidential Center, the median doubled to $440,000 between 2019 and 2025. In 2024 fewer than a third of homes in the area counted as affordable, half the share available fifteen years earlier.
[5]The 2020 Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance pledged 52 city lots for affordable housing, a tenant right of first refusal, home-repair grants, a developer loan fund and local hiring.
[5]In five years: one completed development on those 52 lots. Zero landlords filed the required right-of-first-refusal notice, and the city levied zero of the $1,000-a-day fines available to it. $2 million went unspent. The local-hiring programme produced three jobs.
[5]The rate change, in the Park District's own table
The District told Block Club Chicago in May 2026 that “parking rates have not increased as a result of these upgrades.” That is true, and it is not in conflict with the figures below. The rate rise was a January 2025 budget action; the gate was a July 2025 operational one. Two separate decisions, six months apart, landing on the same community.
| Timeframe | 2024 rate | 2025 rate (incl. tax) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 1 hour | $2.00 | $4.07 | +104% |
| Up to 4 hours | $7.00 | $9.18 | +31% |
| Up to 9 hours | $13.00 | $15.25 | +17% |
| Over 9 hours to close | $21.00 | $23.40 | +11% |
Source: Chicago Park District response to JPAC, 25 September 2025. A $2 increase across all lakefront metered lots was approved in the District's 2025 Annual Budget; the City applies a 23.25% parking tax (Municipal Code 4-236) on top of hourly rates. [8]
One hundred and seven years of the same argument
The question at 63rd Street has never changed: who is the lakefront for? Only the instrument changes — a thrown rock, a squad car, a fee schedule.
Olmsted & Vaux lay out Jackson Park
The designers of Central Park plan Jackson Park, the Midway Plaisance and Washington Park. A granite-brick promenade covers the Jackson Park lakefront by 1888 — for strolling, not swimming, because the city was still dumping raw sewage into the lake. [1]
The beach house opens — and the lakefront burns
After South Side residents petition for more beach, the commissioners complete a ten-acre landfill extension and an elaborate bathing pavilion. [1]
Weeks later, Eugene Williams, 17, drowns after a white man stones him for crossing an informal colour line at the 29th Street Beach. Thirty-eight people die in the week that follows; 537 are injured. The state commission's report, The Negro in Chicago, follows in 1922. [2]
Police clear the drummers from Promontory Point
Will Crosby, who has drummed at 63rd Street since 1970, says police chased drummers out of the park at 55th Street and threw their instruments into the lake — the event that sent them south to 63rd. Oral account [3]
The circle begins
Drummers and other musicians start meeting daily at a circle painted red, black and green on the sidewalk in front of the beach house. They will keep it up for more than half a century. [3]
Harold Washington visits
Crosby says Mayor Washington came to the 63rd Street drummers and declared the location a cultural site. Oral account — no written designation located [3]
The Park District restores the pavilion
The bathing pavilion is renovated and reopens as the 63rd Street Beach House. The courtyards become landscaped space with an interactive water feature. [1]
The city's own planners name it an asset
The Metropolitan Planning Council's Placemaking Chicago initiative recognises the drum circle: “Without the drumming circle, this space would be just another silent, unused path. Instead, it comes alive each night…” [3]
Jackson Park is chosen for the Obama Presidential Center
The city eventually leases 19.3 acres of parkland for 99 years at $10, with the finished $850 million campus owned by the City of Chicago. A coalition of 19 community groups spends years pressing for a community benefits agreement; the Foundation declines one. [6]
Woodlawn gets an anti-displacement ordinance
A compromise between the Lightfoot administration, Ald. Jeanette Taylor, Ald. Leslie Hairston and the CBA coalition. Seven programmes. Three never got off the ground. [5]
January: the rate more than doubles
A $2 increase across every lakefront metered lot, approved in the Park District's 2025 Annual Budget, takes effect. With the City's 23.25% parking tax the first hour goes from $2.00 to $4.07. [8]
4 August: the community goes to the council
At JPAC's monthly meeting, a resident states plainly in public comment that “parking fees need to be waived for the Drummer group.” The membership votes unanimously to let a drummer representative present a full proposal at the next meeting. [9]
2 September: nine demands, in writing
Allison “Mahma Zah” Young, executive director of Sanctuary of Unified Light, writes to the council on behalf of “drummers, artists, cultural practitioners, families, and community members,” naming the site Bongo Beach and setting out nine specific requests. The letter describes the circle as “a safe, alcohol and drug-free space.” [10]
8 September: the council resolves
JPAC adopts a resolution recognising the drummers, recording its disappointment that neither they nor the council were consulted, and urging the Park District “to give every consideration to proposals presented by representatives of the drummers.” [7]
25 September: the Park District answers
General Superintendent and CEO Carlos Ramirez-Rosa replies to JPAC president Michael Scott, setting out the safety rationale, the rate history, an invitation to join Night Out in the Parks, an offer to convene a working group — and one dated commitment about the lawn. [8]
The commitment comes due — and the fencing stays up
The 2026 season has come and gone. The fencing around the lawn beside the circle remains in place and the circle remains blocked. Community report, Sept 2026 — no public Park District statement located
Meanwhile the system piloted at 63rd Street now runs at ten lakefront lots, and on 19 June — Juneteenth — the Obama Presidential Center opened half a mile from the painted circle. [4] [6]
What the Park District put in writing
On 25 September 2025 the Park District's General Superintendent and CEO answered the council's resolution. The letter is not dismissive. It concedes a failure of communication, offers a partnership, and makes one commitment with a date attached.
“We appreciate this feedback and recognize that we must improve communication, particularly when changes may affect longstanding community traditions.”
“We would welcome the 63rd Street Drummers' participation in this program and would be happy to discuss ways to support their continued presence at 63rd Street Beach.”
“We are actively engaged in conversations with the 63rd Street Drummers and working towards a mutually agreeable solution for next year. We welcome continued dialogue and are open to convening a working group with community stakeholders to explore long-term accommodations.”
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, General Superintendent & CEO, Chicago Park District
The fencing, the letter says, is a temporary measure. And then comes the sentence this brief exists to hold up:
“We are committed to finding alternative solutions that mitigate unauthorized vehicle access while maintaining patron usage of the lawns for 2026.”
Same letter, section headed “Fencing Around the Lawn Area”
The 2026 season is over. The fencing is still up.
The lawn beside the circle has not been returned to patron use. The alternative solutions were not delivered. A commitment made in writing by the chief executive of a public agency, to a chartered advisory council, about a specific park, for a specific season, has come due and gone unmet.
That is the single most useful fact in this document. It is not an accusation about motive and it does not require anyone to concede that the gate was wrong. It is a deadline, in the agency's own words, that has passed.
Why the drumming and the selling both have to stay
These are usually treated as two separate nuisances — noise, and unlicensed commerce. They are in fact the same thing: the two ways a community with little capital turns public land into life.
The drum is the deed
Black Chicagoans did not inherit the lakefront. They were stoned off it in 1919, chased off Promontory Point in 1969, and have held 63rd Street by showing up — nightly, unpaid, for fifty-five years.
Occupancy is how a claim survives when the paperwork was never going to come. A circle painted on a sidewalk in red, black and green is not decoration; it is the only title deed the community was allowed to issue itself. Sound is what makes it enforceable: you cannot quietly repurpose a place that four hundred people can hear from the water.
This is also a living transmission line, not a hobby. Djembe rhythms passed to teenagers, Latin patterns from players who grew up elsewhere in the city, the anti-commercial ethic of the Black Arts Movement. It is multigenerational and multicultural, and it costs the city nothing. Kids walk up and ask to play; somebody always hands them a drum.
It's a cultural space and it needs to be protected, or it's going to be erased.
The city's own planning arm said as much in 2008. Nothing about the circle's value has changed since. What changed is the price of the land beside it.
Free enterprise is the point, not the problem
The Park District's own letter names the problem precisely: “a notable increase in unauthorized vendors, including those selling liquor and operating large propane fryers — creating both fire and safety hazards.” Take that seriously. Unlicensed liquor and an unattended propane fryer in a crowd are genuine dangers, and nobody at the circle is arguing otherwise — the drummers' own letter describes their gathering as “a safe, alcohol and drug-free space.”
But look at what the remedy was. The hazard is liquor and propane. The remedy was a gate on the parking lot. That is not a fix aimed at the hazard; it is a fix aimed at the crowd.
A grill, a cooler and a folding table is the lowest-barrier business in America. No lease, no build-out, no credit check, no landlord. For a neighbourhood where the median home price quadrupled in nine years and fewer than a third of homes are now affordable, the beach is one of the last places where a person with $60 of inventory can make a weekend's money in front of their own neighbours.
Enclosure does not eliminate commerce at 63rd Street. It transfers it. The informal vendor is priced out; a private parking contractor is paid instead, from a projected $9 million pot. The transaction hasn't stopped — it has simply stopped being Black, local and small.
Every hazard the District listed is answered by a permit, not a fence. A neighbourhood-vendor tier — low or no fee, a simple food-handling and fuel standard, defined pitches at the beach house, priority for local residents — addresses liquor, propane and crowding directly, and does it better than a gate does, because a licensed vendor can be inspected and an unlicensed one cannot.
Ask it the other way round: if a $23-a-day gate and a snow fence are the answer to unlicensed selling, what exactly is the park for?
Nine requests, submitted 2 September 2025
These are not this brief's suggestions. They are the requests the drummers and their neighbours put to the Jackson Park Advisory Council in writing, through Allison “Mahma Zah” Young of Sanctuary of Unified Light, before the council adopted its resolution. They remain the agenda.
Full beach house access
Guaranteed use of the beach house, including a designated space for gatherings during inclement weather, so the tradition continues year-round.
Official recognition as “Bongo Beach”
Rename the 63rd Street Beach to Bongo Beach, the name generations of community members already use — including, on the record, the ward's own alderman.
Memorial benches
Permanent benches with brass dedication plates around the circle, honouring the drummers and community members who built and sustained it and have since died.
Accessible parking support
Parking vouchers for musicians, especially elders, to ensure safe and equitable access. This is the request a resident had already put to the council in public comment on 4 August 2025.
Community barbecue grills
Installed grills to support shared meals, reinforcing the circle's role as a communal, family-centred space — and, not incidentally, a safer answer to open propane than a fence is.
Historic and cultural landmark designation
Formal designation of Bongo Beach as a historic and cultural landmark in Chicago, protecting its legacy for future generations.
Clear signage
Visible signage recognising Bongo Beach as an official cultural gathering space.
Musically themed play equipment
Inclusive, accessible play structures inspired by music, for children of all ages and abilities.
Overhead pavilion and gathering space
A covered pavilion with picnic tables near the circle — shelter for gatherings, chess, meals and intergenerational community activity.
To these nine, this brief adds two procedural asks that follow directly from the record above: a neighbourhood vendor permit at 63rd Street, which answers the District's stated liquor and propane concerns better than enclosure does; and 60 days' written notice to the Jackson Park Advisory Council and the 63rd Street Drummers Affiliation before any future change to access, fees, fencing or programming at the beach. The District has already acknowledged in writing that its communication must improve. This is what improvement looks like.
What is documented and what is not
Read this before you quote us. This brief is worth more in a hearing room if it is honest about its own limits. Everything above falls into one of four categories.
Primary documents, in hand The drummers' 2 September 2025 proposal; the JPAC agenda of 8 September 2025; the JPAC resolution supporting the drummers; the JPAC minutes of 4 August 2025; and the Chicago Park District's written response of 25 September 2025 signed by General Superintendent and CEO Carlos Ramirez-Rosa. Every date, quotation, parking rate and commitment attributed to those documents is quoted from them directly.
Documented, published sources The 1919 beach house and its architects; Jackson Park's 1871 layout; the 1919 riot, its dates and casualty figures; the drum circle's continuous use since 1970; the citywide rollout of the gate system; the Obama Presidential Center's acreage, lease, cost and opening; every Woodlawn housing figure. From the Chicago Park District, Block Club Chicago / Illinois Answers Project, and DePaul University's Institute for Housing Studies.
Oral account only The 1969 clearing of drummers from Promontory Point and the 1985 Harold Washington visit rest on the recollection of Will Crosby, as reported by Block Club Chicago. They are credible and specific, but we located no contemporaneous document for either. Present them as testimony, not as record.
Reported, not independently confirmed That the fencing remains in place and the circle remains blocked as of September 2026. This comes from the community, not from a published source; we found no Park District statement on whether the 2026 lawn commitment was met. Before this brief is used in a formal setting, put that question to the District in writing and attach the answer — or attach the silence.
Still unverified The claim that 63rd Street Beach was formative in the development of Chicago house music (plausible, widely repeated, unsourced); and the smelt-fishing and dawn-elders traditions (almost certainly real as lived practice, undocumented in anything we could reach). Both are worth an oral-history project. Neither belongs in testimony yet.
Two figures to handle carefully. The Park District's own letter gives the over-nine-hour rate as $23.40; Block Club reported $23.39 in May 2026 — use the District's figure. And one correction worth carrying: Eugene Williams died at the 29th Street Beach, not at 57th or 63rd. The 1919 riot is the right context for this argument, but attaching it to the wrong beach is the fastest way to lose a room.
Sources
Figures current as of 16 September 2026. Built on five primary documents from the Jackson Park Advisory Council, the 63rd Street drummers and the Chicago Park District, plus published reporting. Where an account rests on a single person's memory, this brief says so; where a document could not be obtained, this brief says that too. Quotations remain the work of their reporters and publishers. Block Club Chicago and the Illinois Answers Project are nonprofit newsrooms.