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

"First we had segregation. Then integration. Then disintegration."— resident, American Beach Avoiding the easy clichés of victimhood and oppression, award-winning journalist Russ Rymer brings to life the stark conflict between whites and blacks in the United States today. Through three connected lives in and around northeast Florida's black resort town of American Beach—an unarmed black motorist killed by a white policeman; the great-grandfather of Florida's first black millionaire, who lives on the beach with next to nothing; and prominent Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston—Rymer presents a vision of a nation where the futures of both races are as linked as their histories, where the lost record of heroic black enterprise and prominence offers a key to the struggles of every modern American.

Author Biography: Russ Rymer is a journalist who has written for The New Yorker, Harper's, and the New York Times. His first book, Genie, was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He lives in Los Angles.