Southern California city wrongfully seized beach resort from Black family in 1924. Now county wants to return it.
The direct descendants of a Black family whose California beach resort was wrongly seized by city officials in a racist land grab in 1924 could get their ownership rights restored under new legislation.
Elected officials gathered at Bruce’s Beach in the city of Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles County on Friday to announce the proposed bill aimed at “righting this wrong.”
“This is the story of an American dream that turned into a nightmare,” county Supervisor Janice Hahn told those gathered at the picturesque beach to unveil the proposal introduced by state Sen. Steven Bradford.
It was in 1924 that the county seized the Black-owned resort belonging to Charles and Willa Bruce, forcing the couple to shutter their lodge and cafe and stop serving their predominantly Black clientele.
“White neighbors resented the Black beach-goers,” Hahn said, recalling the shameful history that led to the seizure. “They slashed people’s tires. The KKK even attempted to set the Bruce Lodge on fire.”
The city declared eminent domain to force the Bruce family to leave, claiming there was an “urgent need” to build a public park on the property, Hahn said.
The Bruces tried to fight the move in court, but in 1929, they lost the battle. They were paid only a fraction of the land’s value at the time and were denied the ability to build untold generational wealth for their descendants.
The city, meanwhile, allowed the land to remain vacant for decades.
In 1995, ownership of the land was transferred to Los Angeles County. Hahn said that when she learned the true history of the parcel, she started working with activists and other elected officials to correct the historic injustice.
Sen. Bradford said he authored the new bill, which would give the county the right to restore the Bruce family’s ownership, because it was time to “recognize and respond to the racist wrongs of the past.”
“I hope that the action that we take today will serve as a turning point in California’s history,” he said.
Hahn’s fellow county Supervisor Holly Mitchell said Friday that the Bruce family was “robbed of their property.”
“The county isn’t gifting anyone anything. The county is returning property that was inappropriately taken,” she said.
Bruce family member Chief Duane Yellowfeather Shepard, a Pocasset Wampanoag chief and tribal elder from his father’s side, said Friday that his family matriarch Willa Bruce was the victim of “institutional racism that railroaded our family out of here.”
“We want restoration of our land,” he told the crowd, adding that his family suffered greatly from the “scourge of slavery.”
“We reserve our rights on this earth to be men, to be women, to be human beings, to be given the rights of human beings, to be given the respect of human beings,” he said.
