Johnnetta Betsch Cole sits in her American Beach home on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. Cole, who turned 90 earlier in the month, will celebrate her milestone birthday with a fundraiser for the A.L. Lewis Black Opportunity & Investment Fund. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on October 29, 2026 at 4:09 pm
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College presidents, American presidents and philanthropists will celebrate the 90th birthday of Jacksonville native Johnnetta Betsch Cole on Friday night in Downtown Jacksonville.
The dinner is a fundraiser for the A.L. Lewis Black Opportunity & Impact Fund. Since its public launch in August 2023, the fund has awarded nearly $670,000 to close health disparities, improve educational outcomes and enhance economic development in historically or predominantly Black neighborhoods in Jacksonville’s urban core.
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Cole became a nonagenarian Oct. 19. President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden have, reportedly, written letters of congratulations.
“It means so much that Dr. Cole is supporting the A.L. Lewis Fund through her birthday celebration,” Tim Johnson, A.L. Lewis Fund chair, said in a statement. “Our giving circle grew out of the legacy of Abraham Lincoln Lewis, her great-grandfather, who believed in investing in the people around him. Like him, we will put these resources to work in ways that make our community stronger.”
Initially, she did not want a grand celebration because this is a difficult time because “my African American sisters and brothers, as well as folk in other marginalized communities — and that includes some white folk — are really suffering.”
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Gas prices have increased exponentially this year while beef, rice and lettuce prices have increased by at least 5% over the last year. That environment, combined with an American ecosystem where the “very tenets of democracy are being chipped away” made the acclaimed anthropologist hesitant.
The idea of turning the celebration into a fundraiser changed those plans.
“I remember very well when some of Jacksonville’s most distinguished African American leaders approached me and asked if I would agree to have this organization named after my great-grandfather,” Cole said this week. “It took me a nanosecond to say yes, because everything that this fund attempts to do is so deeply centered on who A.L. Lewis was and what he did.”
Who was A.L. Lewis?
Abraham Lincoln Lewis was a philanthropist, insurance magnate, developer and a Sunday school superintendent at Mount Olive A.M.E Church on the Eastside. His descendants said Lewis implored the importance of giving back their time, talent and treasure in any way they could.
In 1935, he purchased 200 acres of beachfront property in Nassau County and created American Beach. The community became a place where Black people could rest, recreate and congregate.
Today, the American Beach home Cole and her husband, James Staton Jr., share smelled like a nursery with the dozens of flowers that were sent to celebrate her milestone birthday.
Her family room features photos with multiple presidents as well as a sepia-toned photograph the Betsch children — MaVynee, Johnnetta and John — from their youth.
‘Go back’ and look forward
Cole will release her memoir on Feb. 15. Sankofa: Reflections on Life, Learning and Social Justice will include chapters on her friendships, her two-decade marriage to Staton, “wrestle with what in the world is going on in my country” and more.
“It’s very humbling. I thought I was ready for this, but having so many of my dearest sister friends and brother friends — and I don’t use that language just to refer to African Americans — to have so many of my sister and brother siblings celebrate my birthday in this way, it’s just humbling,” Cole said. “I know I have done the work and continue to do the work I’ve been called to do, but the outpouring of support is, to be honest, humbling.”
