About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

22 St. & Loc. L. News 1 (1998-1999)

handle is hein.journals/stlolane6 and id is 1 raw text is: /M Section of State and Local Government Law LOCAL LAW 11 IiW i The Section serves as a collegialforum for its members, the profession and the public to provide leadership and educational resources in urban, state and localgovernment law andpolicy. American Beach: Surviving the Times By Tonyaa Weathersbee The 1930s were when Sunday seashore picnics only filled the dreams of African-Americans. But in North Florida Abraham Lincoln Lewis, founder of the state's first black- owned insurance company, made that dream a reality. With money from the Afro-American Life Insurance Company's pension plan and a federal grant, Lewis and the other company owners purchased 200 acres of the south end of Amelia Island. They named the property American Beach and for the next forty years the beach was the place for blacks on summer Sundays. Charter and church buses from Jacksonville and South Georgia would pack the shore. People would gather at Evans Ocean Rendezvous for his famous whiting and sea bass and to listen to live jazz and blues. Families would look forward to weekends at the A.L. Lewis Motel and bring picnic baskets brimming with chicken and potato salad. It was a place where African- Americans could revel both in nature and in their culture. Now, just two years shy of the millennium, American Beach is still hanging on. But barely. The threats to its existence are twofold. The first threat comes from developers-namely from the adjacent Amelia Island Plantation. Their activities have encroached on much of the sixty-five or so acres left of American Beach. A good part of the beach was sold after Jacksonville Beach and other beaches that were formerly off-limits to black beach goers desegregated in the 1960s. By the 1980s, many African-Americans had stopped fre- quenting American Beach as much as they had in the past. At the same time many of the original owners of American Beach property died and their heirs sold the property to developers. The most recent sale occurred two years ago when the plantation bought eighty acres including a large dune that punctuates the beach's natural beauty. A retirement village has been built west of the beach and a five-hole golf course is planned. Residents fought the devel- opers, but lost. The sale magnified the residents' fear of higher proper- Tonyaa Weathersbee is an editor with the Jacksonville Times- Union and a resident of American Beach. ty taxes. That fear has, in some respects, paralyzed them in their pursuit of progress. This paralysis is what is creating the second threat to American Beach's sur- vival-an ongoing uneasiness between homeowners and business owners. Business owners, such as William Weathersbee, owner of the Rendezvous and Emma Morgan, who operates a park- ing lot on summer Sundays, would like American Beach to have water and sewer services installed. Currently, the beach is the only place on the island serviced by private wells. Water and sewer services, they say, will help them improve their businesses and attract more business. But many resi- dents say that hooking into the water and sewer services will make the beach more attractive to developers-a situation that could price them off the beach. The conflict between American Beach property owners who crave the quiet seaside enclave life and those who want the beach to be a place for everyone as it was in its heyday, always comes to a head at the beginning of the beach season. One Sunday in May, about 5,000 people came to the beach. Officers from the Nassau County Sheriff's office were also there-per the request of residents. But the crowd (continued on page 6) . Chair's Messag e Preventi , 1,jv e rograms After F a er v. City of Boca Ratoii, pa-e 7 Ten F ffectv Stae-c o ouiis411 MunicipaL ( t11,g111' ollE xc pge 9 * Envwron.~ h / *Recent Developmnen s, pagli 14 Vol. 22, No. 1, Fall 1998

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most