American Beach: A Saga of Race, Wealth, and Memory

by Russ Rymer

An accomplished journalist illuminates the state of race relations today through three stories about northeast Florida, including the battle of the great-granddaughter of Florida's first black millionaire to save the town of American Beach. National ad/promo.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Russ Rymer is the author of Genie: A Scientific Tragedy, which became a NOVA television documentary and was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and American Beach: A Saga of Race, Wealth, and Memory, which was nominated for a Los Angeles Times Book of the Year Award and named a New York Times Notable Book. Rymer, currently the Joan Leiman Jacobson Non-Fiction Writer in Residence at Smith College, has contributed articles to The New Yorker, National Geographic, Harper’s, Atlantic, and the New York Times Magazine.

Reviews

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book about what we lost in desegregation.

[Dewin Anguas Barnette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a complete hidden jewel. I had no plans to read it; it was one of those miracle books that jumps out at you at just the right time. My parents have a house in Fernandina, and so I have traveled out there several times. It wasn't until the last two times I made the drive that I noticed the brown Historic American Beach sign on the side of the highway. Instantly, I somehow knew it was a former Black beach, and instantly I wanted to see it. But I didn't have time to stop. Flash forward a couple of months and I am walking down the aisles of Chamblin Book Mine in Jacksonville, an absolute mecca of used books and a haven for bibliophiles such as myself. I couldn't find the two books I had come looking for, so I commenced The Walk. I slowly walked down the African-American History aisle on my way to the door to just see if anything jumped out and spoke to me. American Beach was a beacon. I grabbed it thinking, no way this is about that American Beach. I read the back, and indeed it is. I bought it.

I started to read it slowly thinking it would just be some quaint history book to give me a little bit of background on the area. I soon learned that that was the complete opposite of the magic that this book would bring. Typically, I am happy with a nonfiction work if I learn maybe three new things from it. I cannot count the number of revelations- factual, emotional, spiritual, historical- that I gained from this book. This book is not about American Beach, it is about America. It is about the multitude of mostly invisible, practically unexplainable nuances in the relationships between black and white, between ancestral heritage and forward movement, between money and passion, between truth and lie. This book tells the truth. The full, sometimes ugly, unadulterated truth. This book explains racism in a way that I had never seen it before and brings forth the ignored struggles that Black Americans have been forced to endure, even in response to such positive reforms such as desegregation. But, I think the most important lesson it teaches is to hold tight to our forefathers, good or bad. Our history is what makes us, as much as people choose to push it aside as irrelevant. One day I hope genealogy and storytelling will be taught in schools as respectable and necessary studies of who we are, where we have been, and where we are going. Because if we continue to move forward blindly without regard to past or future, we will soon become a lost civilization.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books - even though there's a chapter or so about 3/4 of the way through where Rymer seems to wander away from the story. I love his writing though and I love the idea that people like this really populate our world.

[Corwyn Rainey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was sceptical about reading this at first because I figured it would be a lot of nonsense, after turning the book over and seeing "The Beach Lady" as she was known around town, I decided why not. Being from this same little town Mr. Rymer is talking about in this book I can say he definitely did his work and dug deep to go as in depth into the situations as he did, I can remember some of the situations very vivid from growing up here and I knowing some of people personally and their stories, Job well done and thank you for not aggravating anything, even taught me a few things I didn't know about my own town such as the slave graveyard on property swindled from the real owners. A must read especially if you're looking for actual stories from real towns.

[dori · Rating 5 out of 5]

More people need to read this book. Russ Rymer is a fantastic author and journalist who has made this story live. It's a little maddening to think this was published in 1998 and we are still asking ourselves a lot of the same questions.

[Sheli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent writing! Rich history of black communities and culture w insightful analysis is evolution of race relations. All Americans need to know this history.

[Lydell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A real eye-opener on how gentrification isn’t just limited to the ‘hood.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was suggested to me by a Fernandina Beach local as a good book for understanding the town better. It is much, much more than that.

[Bugz Bryant]

Just started.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book. I have lived in northeast Florida for over twenty years and never knew the important role black Americans played in its history. I loved the personal stories in the book. The only reason I rated the book a four rather than a five, was the pontification by the author and those he quoted on what these stories meant. It was very obvious what these compelling and often tragic stories meant and the pontifications took away from the emotional effect these stories had on me as a reader.