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

?I found this book, in first edition and excellent condition, at the Oakland Library book sale. I paid $3.60 for it and consider it one of the best bargains I've gotten in terms of value. This book needs to be read by anyone attempting to understand black culture, the effects of commercialism and the Disneyfication of our cultural heritage. Told in a very personal way by a journalist who became fascinated by stories of an enclave of black upper-middle-class families and the society that grew around them in the days before desegregation, it also speaks volumes about our heritage as Americans, white or Black. If I got nothing else out of this book -- and I assure you, I did -- Rymer managed to explain as I had never heard it the reasons for the antagonistic, in-your-face angry Black youth that are the hip-hop nation. In his view, white consumerism created them in search of something "authentic" to grind up and feed into he maw of the commercial pop exploitation machine. He likens them to the minstrels of old, acceptable, even desirable, stereotypes to keep us from noticing that, at the core, we are all really very much alike. I can't recommend this book enough. There are passages that may bring tears to your eyes, as they did to mine, eyes jaded by years as a white police officer usually working in non-white neighborhoods. This is a book that will change the way I look at culture, history and America. May it do the same for you.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. On one hand the book is very well written by an author who is obviously very intelligent. (He had me feeling intellectually challenged from time to time, and I consider myself to be a pretty bright person.) He presents, again and again, extremely thought-provoking ideas and profound comments about modern society. And in presenting his biting analysis of today's society he provides glimmers of hope that things can be changed for the better. On the other hand, I found this book to be very depressing. The descriptions of the sins of the past, in the form of slavery and racial segregation and violence against blacks, are chilling. Today's problems, with lingering discrimination and the commercialization of American society, are also saddening. Sometimes I took a break from reading because the book made me so unhappy. "American Beach" is a collection of four stories, three short ones and one quite long one. All but the last story are based on Amelia Island on the east coast of Florida next to the Georgia border, where the towns of Fernandina Beach and American Beach are. (The last story is based in Eatonville on the outskirts of Orlando, Florida.) And all but the first of the four stories has racial conflicts as a primary theme. But Mr. Rymer makes it clear that today's racial problems, serious as they are, are not the biggest problems faced by blacks or by American society in general. He sees big business and it's influence on everything to be a greater source of apathy and alienation and disenfranchisement and environmental destruction. In the view of Mr. Rymer, unbridled capitalism and the "culture of the corporation" are breaking down the values that the founding fathers stood for and that many generations of Americans up until WW II fought for, such as democracy. As an example he tells about the Disney-owned town of Celebration which proclaims itself to be the reincarnation of the old-fashioned American town, but which requires residents to sign a contract in which they let Disney operate the town without them, the residents, having any significant influence! One of the author's claims is that cultural poverty can be worse than economic poverty. Blacks are especially hard hit by cultural poverty, having lost their roots when they were abducted from Africa. Black attempts to create their own culture often resulted in their best creations being usurped by the dominant white society and their less fortunate attempts being ridiculed by the whites. But American society in general lacks roots, being a melting pot society. Added to this is the rise in the power of the corporations, who can transform functioning towns into ghettos on the edge of holiday resorts for the rich, and can commercialize and thus de-fang every kind of cultural protest. Bob Dylan becomes Muzak and street gangs and gun-toting rappers become movie fodder and hit entertainers. Consumer capitalism has turned culture and even histor

Russ Rymer has composed a series of three essays bound together by a theme of black cultural identity and its often sad conflict with a dominant (or at least more assertive) white culture. The major essay, composing over half of the book, is the story of MaVynee Betsch. She is a rather eccentric older women who has taken as her life's cause the preservation of a former beach resort of the black middle and upper class. The resort was developed by her father, A.L. Lewis, the millionaire owner of a black insurance business from the 1920s to the 1950s. Rymer, who is white, does a good job of developing the relevance of the resort to the black culture of the time, while providing the historical context for its existence. Both Mr. Lewis's insurance company and the beach resort were the results of white exclusion of blacks, and both met their demise with the legal end of that exclusion. Miss Betsch can't save the insurance company, but she makes amazing strides at preserving American Beach. The essay is long, with many apparent digressions, but the author's sympathy for the Miss Betsch and her amazing character carry it along.The main essay is preceded by an account of the tragic end to the life of a 33-year-old black man, Dennis Wilson, by a policeman's bullet at a traffic stop. Mr. Rymer develops the man's background and the events leading up to the sad ending as well as its effect on the survivors, both in Mr. Wilson's family and among the policemen involved. Its place in the book as the lead essay is to set the tone of conflict between two cultures, black and white, that basically have the same dreams and values. The story has been and is being replayed in communities all over the country and is now becoming a public policy issue known as racial profiling. To me, Rymer's point is that whites must make an effort to view the issue from the perspective of black people.The third essay is the best in the book, and is worth reading by itself. It addresses the preservation of the town of Eatonville in central Florida, which has become a symbol of celebration of black American culture. Mr. Rymer compares it with the commercial effort of the Disney conglomerate to develop the planned community of Centennial nearby. Centennial attempts to recreate the past, while Eatonville's citizens succeed in preserving their past. The story again points out the shared values of the two cultures, and the importance of preserving the black culture.This is a book well worth reading.

Having just finished "Slaves in the Family" by Edward Ball when I came across this book, I was struck by a completely different slice of black history and the black condition. Here is the story of the great-granddaughter of a black millionaire who leads a very privileged life, attends Oberlin college, has a fairly short but successful career as an opera singer in Europe, and then returns home to see her mother die, the family fortune dissipate and her world fall apart. It is also a plea for historical preservation and environmental protection. A very poignant and yet inspiring true story. I sang with Marvyne Betsch in the College Choir at Oberlin, and can still hear the unique dark timbre of her voice after forty years!

I bought this book because I grew up hearing stories about the "black" beach near Jacksonville and about the beach lady, MaVynee Betsch, and because I attended Spelman College under the extraordinary leadership of Johnetta Betsch Cole and could never believe "the beach lady" was her sister. Their family history is amazing, and timeless. My mother's side of the family is native to northeastern Florida. Rymer's undertaking to expose the world to the richness of these people is laudable. I learned so much about my history and the history of the place where I'm from that I'd never known. I took the book home with me (FL) for the holidays and my family was so deligted to learn so much about home, and to get reacquainted with the familiar things once known, that we had to go out and get additional copies of the book. It will be a standard in our family for years to come. In short, it is compelling and quite informative. To read this book is to get a true appreciation of a people and their glorious,on-going struggle. I highly recommend American Beach.