LOS ANGELES (AP) – Los Angeles County plans to return beachfront property to descendants of a black couple who built a coastal complex for African Americans but suffered racist harassment and local city leaders they removed them a century ago, a county official said Friday.
“The county’s intent is to return this property,” Janice Hahn, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said at a news conference at what is known as Bruce’s Beach in Manhattan Beach.
The decision in Los Angeles County, the most populous in the country, comes at a time of national accounting on race and discussions at the local, state and federal levels about repairs.
It comes after multiple property transfers over the decades. Today, a county headquarters lifeguard training building sits on the property along some of the most coveted coasts in Southern California.
The property comprises two plots purchased in 1912 by Willa and Charles Bruce, who built the first West Coast resort for blacks at a time when segregation forbade them many beaches. Accommodation, a cafeteria, a ballroom and tents with bathing suits for rent were built. It was initially known as Bruce’s Lodge.
“Bruce Beach became a place where black families traveled from afar to be able to enjoy the simple pleasure of a day at the beach,” Hahn said.
It didn’t last long.
The Bruces and their customers were harassed by white neighbors and the Ku Klux Klan tried to burn him down. Manhattan Beach City Council eventually used an eminent domain to remove land from Bruces in the 1920s, supposedly to use it as a park.
“The Bruces were robbed of California’s dream,” Hahn said. “And that was an injustice inflicted not only on Willa and Charles Bruce, but on generations of their descendants, who would almost certainly have been millionaires if they had been able to maintain that property and their successful business.”
After remaining unused for years, the land was transferred to the state of California in 1948 and in 1995 moved to Los Angeles County for beach operations and maintenance.
The latest transfer came with restrictions that limit the ability to sell or transfer property and can only be withdrawn through a new state law, Hahn said.
State Senator Steven Bradford said Monday he will introduce legislation, SB 796, that will exempt the land from these restrictions.
“After so many years we will correct this injustice,” he said.
If the law is passed, the transfer to the descendants would have to be approved by the five-member board of supervisors, said Liz Odendahl, Hahn’s communications director.
Manhattan Beach is now a small town of about 35,000 people on the south shore of Santa Monica Bay. Its picturesque pier is transformed into waves appreciated by surfers and luxury residences have replaced many of the beach houses along a seafront promenade called The Strand. According to census data, its population is 78% white and 0.5% black.
This week, the current City Council formally acknowledged and condemned the efforts of city leaders in the early 20th century to displace the Bruces and several other black families, but stopped apologizing officially, Southern California News Group reported.
“We offer this recognition and condemnation as a founding act for the next hundred years of Manhattan Beach,” says a council-approved document, “and the actions we will take together, to the best of our ability, in deeds and words, reject the prejudice and hatred and promote respect and inclusion “.
A hill that rises sharply behind the property in front of the beach has a parking lot on the beach and on top of that there is a city park with sea views which was christened Bruce’s Beach in 2006.
Odendahl said the lot and the park were not part of the Bruces property and would not be part of a transfer to the family.
The value of the property has not been assessed, he said.
The return of the land could include an option for Bruce’s descendants to lease the land to the county for continued use.