This website and corresponding research paper were funded with a 2017 Research Grant from the Virginia Beach Historic Preservation Commission.

The website and research paper includes fascinating details and photos from yesteryear.

Start here to view the fascinating story.

In 1947, Life Magazine published a photo essay on Seaview Beach calling it “Virginia’s best-known Negro resort.” The magazine reported that up to 10,000 tourists visited the beach on the weekends. Images showed well-to-do African-American professionals enjoying social life at the beach and adjacent amusement park.1This was contrary to much of the negative media coverage of African Americans at the time and casts a light on a hidden upper-class population in Virginia.