A.L. Lewis Museum at American Beach, FLA
Opened in 2014, this fascinating museum was the dream of MaVynee Oshun Betsch, aka “The Beach Lady,” who died in 2005, but happened to have been the great granddaughter of A.L. Lewis, President of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company and a self-made millionaire, who created an oceanfront resort right here in Amelia Island where African Americans could enjoy “recreation and relaxation without humiliation” during the Jim Crow era. Betsch was an opera singer, historian, activist, and environmentalist who packed crates of documents, artifacts, books, and memorabilia from her great grandfather’s shuttered office and would invite locals over to peruse the memories—and they are fascinating. Now you can see them too at this fantastic museum that greets visitors with an 11-minute video of The Beach Lady herself, giving you her own up close and personal tour of her family’s fabulous legacy. Expect to spend about an hour here.
Opened in 2014, this fascinating museum was the dream of MaVynee Oshun Betsch, aka “The Beach Lady,” who died in 2005, but happened to have been the great granddaughter of A.L. Lewis, President of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company and a self-made millionaire, who created an oceanfront resort right here in Amelia Island where African Americans could enjoy “recreation and relaxation without humiliation” during the Jim Crow era. Betsch was an opera singer, historian, activist, and environmentalist who packed crates of documents, artifacts, books, and memorabilia from her great grandfather’s shuttered office and would invite locals over to peruse the memories—and they are fascinating. Now you can see them too at this fantastic museum that greets visitors with an 11-minute video of The Beach Lady herself, giving you her own up close and personal tour of her family’s fabulous legacy. Expect to spend about an hour here.
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