Ocean City Beach sits along a one-mile stretch of land on Topsail Island. A coalition of interracial business owners founded the community in 1949 as a vacation spot for black North Carolinians. Its establishment created t he first beachfront town where people of color could purchase or build property in North Carolina. Seventy years later, first and second-generation Ocean City locals feel the historical significance of the community may be lost to commercial property development and the