Our history · Lincoln State Park, Millen, Georgia
The land remembers.
Before it was a resort, it was a place where people came to belong. There is a story held in this land, a story of family, gathering, resilience, and Black joy.
During an era of separate and unequal access, many of Georgia's parks were closed to Black families. The state established just five segregated parks for Black Georgians, and Lincoln State Park, near Millen, was one of them.
Here, families could swim, picnic, fish, camp, and spend time together. They came to make memories, celebrate life, and simply enjoy the outdoors, creating a place of connection and belonging when too many other spaces said they could not enter.
That spirit of welcome is still here.
Today, Lincoln Heritage Glamping Resort builds upon that legacy by welcoming people from every background to slow down, gather, reconnect, and experience the beauty of this land.
We are both a hospitality business and a keeper of memory. A portion of every Heritage Walk supports the preservation and interpretation of this historic site, helping ensure that the stories held here are not forgotten, and that future generations can continue to gather here, too.
The land remembers. And now, we invite you to be part of its next chapter.
A short timeline
1931–1940s
Two systems, one taxpayer
Georgia formed its State Parks Division in 1931. For decades that system ran on two tracks: the traditional parks catered to white Georgians, while Black families, who paid the same taxes, were barred and pointed instead toward a handful of segregated parks around the state.
1950
Carver breaks the trail
Georgia's first “State Park for Negroes,” George Washington Carver Park, opened on Lake Allatoona near Acworth, run by former Tuskegee Airman John Loyd Atkinson. It proved Black Georgians would come, and opened the door for the parks that followed.
1950s
Lincoln State Park, near Millen
In Jenkins County, Lincoln State Park became the place Black families in this part of Georgia could do the ordinary, precious things segregation denied them elsewhere: swim, fish, picnic, and pitch a tent. Like its sister parks, its buildings and equipment were, by design, never funded to the standard of the whites-only parks nearby.
1964 onward
The law changes
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended legal segregation of public facilities. Georgia's park system integrated after several hard-fought years, a change won in courtrooms and through community activism that named the parks' built-in inequality plainly.
After integration
What became of the land
As the state integrated, its segregated parks were closed, turned over to local recreation departments, or absorbed into other parks. Records for the smaller Black parks, Lincoln among them, grow thin here, part of why keeping this story is worth doing.
Today
Stewardship
We run these grounds as a working retreat and as a keeper of memory. A share of every heritage walk and event goes toward preserving the site and telling its history truthfully.
Add to the memories of the park
Did your family know Lincoln State Park? We'd be honored to hear from you.
We're gathering photographs, names, and memories to keep this history whole. The records for the smaller Black parks are thin, and your story helps fill them. Please reach out.
Share a memoryA place with a history and a future you get to help write.
Come see it for yourself, and become part of its next chapter.