American Beach

Eddy L. Harris

He has a feeling for the people he meets and tells about and for the lives theyhave lived, and he nudges his reader to care for them too and to arrive at his intended conclusions, which he does with great skill. —The New York Times Book Review

Dennis Dugan

Journalist Rymer acknowledges the difficulty of a white man recording black history: the reluctance and suspicion of interview subjects and the writer's concerns about the history not being accorded its due consideration. But Rymer overcomes those suspicions and delivers a fascinating account of the economic and social development of two black communities in Florida: American Beach and Eatonville. Rymer emphasizes the development of American Beach and the wealth accumulation of its most prominent familyall at a time when blacks were subjected to stifling discrimination in the U.S.particularly in the South. His focus is the fascinating family of Abraham Lincoln LewisFlorida's first black millionairedeveloper of the resort communityand a founder of the businesses that supported the community for so long. —Los Angeles Times

Emerge

A book large in ambition and achievement.

Library Journal

Journalist Rymer (Genie: An Abused Child's Flight from Silence, LJ 4/15/93) examines the confluence and interaction of race, corporate wealth, family ties, and history in the black community of American Beach, FL, and its surrounding areas. Rymer's writing style sometimes obscures rather than clarifies meaning, and he has an unfortunate predilection for excessive repetition and too-frequent digressions. Nonetheless, the book is a worthwhile purchase for most public libraries. Its principal value is found in the part of the book (approximately half) devoted to a discussion of MaVynee Betsch, her family, and the family business. Once a critically acclaimed opera singer and the great-granddaughter of Florida's first black millionaire, Betsch is now a beachcomber and an ardent environmentalist who devotes much of her time today to fighting the incursions of resort developers into her community. Of the various stories presented here, most readers will be left with a desire to learn more about this fascinating woman. Recommended with the above caveats. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 7/98.]--Thomas H. Ferrell, Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette

School Library Journal

YA-Rymer, a white journalist who has spent years living among and interviewing the people of Amelia Island and American Beach, FL, provides a quilt of accounts, insights, introspections, and memories. The community at the center of this book has a history of middle-class African-American leadership. The white presence surrounding it has been considered, by turns across the past 150 years, extended family, neighborly, tolerable, patronizing, and, ultimately, insurmountable. The tales include those of one-time diva MaVynee Betsch, who earned artistic acclaim in Europe 40 years ago and now enjoys the status of local heroine for her political forwardness; the death of Dennis Wilson at the hands of local white police; and the encroachment of the Disney Corporation. While Rymer's sympathies are clear, he presents ample evidence for readers to consider how history pervades current politics and how all politics can be viewed as local. Teens with an interest in American studies will find this satisfying reading, while social-sciences teachers will be pleased by the riches it offers as a supplementary classroom text.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Eddy L. Harris

He has a feeling for the people he meets and tells about and for the lives theyhave lived, and he nudges his reader to care for them too and to arrive at his intended conclusions, which he does with great skill. -- The New York Times Book Review

Dennis Dugan

Journalist Rymer acknowledges the difficulty of a white man recording black history: the reluctance and suspicion of interview subjects and the writer's concerns about the history not being accorded its due consideration. But Rymer overcomes those suspicions and delivers a fascinating account of the economic and social development of two black communities in Florida: American Beach and Eatonville. Rymer emphasizes the development of American Beach and the wealth accumulation of its most prominent family, all at a time when blacks were subjected to stifling discrimination in the U.S., particularly in the South. His focus is the fascinating family of Abraham Lincoln Lewis, Florida's first black millionaire, developer of the resort community, and a founder of the businesses that supported the community for so long. -- Los Angeles Times

Kirkus Reviews

A perceptive, occasionally slow-reading mix of history, personal narrative, and cultural criticism tries with great (though not complete) success to analyze the role race and money play in America's most intractable social problems. Researching the history of his adopted northeast Florida home, Rymer (Genie: An Abused Child's Flight from Silence) encounters suspicion as a white journalist interested in black history. His interest is largely explained by the fact that he sees the rise and fall of American Beach, one of the country's few black resorts, as exemplary of the problems faced by American society as a whole. The longest of the three overlapping stories, "Ancestral Houses," examines the life of A.L. Lewis, Florida's first black millionaire and a towering example of a type long disappeared from the American scene: a businessman who melds morality and commerce. As the founder of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company and the architect of the planned community of American Beach, Lewis was the moral and financial pillar of his community. After his death, both company and community disintegrated. Rymer, who sees this sad tale as an example of the tragic arc of US (rather than exclusively black) history, brackets that story with two related narratives. The first details the death of a troubled black man at the hands of white policemen, and the tensions it causes. The second contrasts Disney World's nostalgic Celebration community with the real-world battle for autonomy waged by Eatonville, the nearby hometown of Zora Neale Hurston. Throughout, Rymer's conviction is that American society has been rent by a central problem throughout history: our ability to"dichotomize" our lives between business and morality. He's at his best as a reporter, allowing his subjects to spin their own tales. At times his social commentary (his comparison of Disney's utopian Celebration community with the ideals of the Harlem Renaissance, for example) overreaches.