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The San Dune and the Oak: Symbols, Embodiment, and Nature in Post-Racial Florida

Mon, May 28, 14:00 to 15:15, Hilton Old Town, Floor: M, Dvorak II/III

Abstract

In 1994, the Amelia Island Company bought a 100-acre plot of land in Florida. It planned to add a retirement village, Plantation Park, and a further nine-hole golf course to its existing development, Amelia Island Plantation. The Plantation, as locals call it, is a gated community taking up much of the south of Amelia Island, a short drive from Jacksonville. The land, called Harrison Tract, was once part of American Beach - an African-American-owned beach bought during the Jim Crow era to offer escape from the humiliations of segregation. The sale put the company into conflict with members of the American Beach community - especially MaVynee Betsch, a descendant of one of the beach’s founders and a prominent environmentalist. Over the years that followed, American Beach’s dispute with the Plantation was the focus of national news, books and documentaries. Betsch and her allies campaigned successfully for official protection for American Beach and highlighted the threat high-priced developments pose to America’s remaining historical African-American beaches.

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