Alfred Ely Beach High School is one of the oldest public high schools located in Savannah, Georgia.  In 1867, the Beach Institute was established by the Freedmen's Bureau with funds donated by Alfred Ely Beach, editor of Scientific American. The school was privately funded as a manual training school to provide a means for newly freed African Americans to assimilate into white society. By 1874, the institute was appropriated by the Savannah-Chatham Board of Education for the purpose of providing free education to Savannah's African American citizenry. Although the Beach Institute closed its doors in 1915, it was reopened as an African American cultural center and is currently operated by the King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation. The Beach name survives in the name of Alfred E. Beach High School.

In 2010, Beach High School was selected as the recipient of "Outstanding Service By a High School" at the 38th annual Jefferson Awards, an honor for community service and volunteerism.

2010-2011 school year, Beach High School made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under the guidelines of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.