American Beach is turning 75!

A truly unique local treasure is celebrating an important birthday this year. American Beach, which was once the premier African American resort community on the east coast, is reaching an historical milestone this year. In 1935, Abraham Lincoln Lewis would make history by creating a truly unique attraction on our little island.

A.L. Lewis co-founded the Afro-American Life Insurance Company in Jacksonville, becoming Florida’s first millionaire. In the era of Jim Crow American and “separate but equal” facilities, African Americans were not welcome on most public beaches. To address this inequality, Lewis purchased 33 acres of beach-front property on Amelia Island and began hosting company outings there. He offered his employees, and eventually the broader black community, the opportunity to purchase parcels of what would become American Beach. After WWII, a housing boom brought nation-wide attention to American Beach as an African American resort community.

Ever the entrepreneur, Lewis built hotels, nightclubs, and restaurants to accommodate the throng of vacationers which began arriving each weekend. The days were filled with car shows and beauty contests, and acts such as Cab Calloway and Lewis Armstrong performed in the evenings, making American Beach famous throughout the southeast. Many residents can recall memories of vacationers backed up across the bridge each Friday night en route to American Beach.

Ironically, the decline of American Beach came with the 1964 Civil Rights Act. A decisive blow to the Jim Crow laws, the legislation desegregated America’s beaches and ultimately doomed American Beach. African Americans no longer had to travel to Amelia Island for a beach resort atmosphere and the area became a sleepy beach-side community. Lewis’s great-granddaughter, MaVynee Betsch, kept the beach’s legacy alive by giving tours and advocating for its preservation until her death in 2005. Today, groups such as the American Beach Property-owners Association and the A.L. Lewis Historical Society continue MaVynee’s work preserving its heritage and a community center/museum are scheduled to open in the near future.

Join us at the museum as we celebrate its 75th birthday with American Beach memorabilia.