LOS ANGELES (AP) – Los Angeles County plans to hand over first-class beach property to descendants of a black couple who built a spa for African Americans but suffered racist harassment and a century ago by local city leaders was relieved, a provincial official said Friday.
“It’s the county’s intention to return this property,” Janice Hahn, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, told a news conference at what is known as Bruce’s Beach in Manhattan Beach.
The ruling in Los Angeles County, the most populous state in the country, comes at a time of national calculation on race and discussions at local, state and federal levels about compensation.
This comes after several property transfers over the decades. Today, there is a lifeguard headquarters building on the premises along a popular coastline in Southern California.
The property contains two parcels purchased in 1912 by Willa and Charles Bruce, who built the first West Coast resort for black people at a time when segregation barred them from many beaches. They built a lodge, a cafe, a dance hall and tents with bathing suits for rent. Initially, it was known as Bruce’s Lodge.
“Bruce’s Beach has become a place where Black families traveled from far and wide to enjoy the simple pleasures of a day at the beach,” Hahn said.
It did not last long.
The Bruces and their customers were harassed by white neighbors and the Ku Klux Klan tried to burn it down. The Manhattan Beach City Council eventually used a prominent domain to take the land away from the Bruces in the 1920s, allegedly as a park.
“The Bruces stole their California dream from them,” Hahn said. “And it was an injustice inflicted not only on Willa and Charles Bruce, but also generations of their descendants who would almost certainly have been millionaires if they could have kept the property and their successful business.”
After years of unused land, it was transferred to the state of California in 1948, and in 1995 it was transferred to Los Angeles County for beach operations and maintenance.
The latest transfer was accompanied by restrictions that limit the ability to sell or transfer the property and can only be lifted by a new state law, Hahn said.
State Senator Steven Bradford said on Monday he would introduce legislation, SB 796, that would exempt the country from these restrictions.
“After so many years, we will rectify this injustice,” he said.
If the law succeeds, the transfer to the descendants must be approved by the province’s five supervisory boards, said Liz Odendahl, director of communications through Hahn.
Manhattan Beach is now a theatrical city of about 35,000 people on the south coast of Santa Monica Bay. Its picturesque pier falls into swells appreciated by surfers, and luxury residences have replaced many of the beach houses along a beach wall called The Strand. According to census data, the population is 78% white and 0.5% black.
The current city council this week formally acknowledged and condemned the efforts of city leaders in the early 20th century to oust the Bruces and several other black families, but stopped apologizing, Southern California News Group reported.
‘We give this recognition and condemnation a foundation for the next hundred years of Manhattan Beach,’ reads a document approved by the council, ‘and the actions we will take to the best of our ability, in deeds and in words, to reject prejudice and hatred and to promote respect and inclusion. ”
A hill that stands steeply behind the property on the beach has a beach parking lot and above it is a city park with a sea view that was renamed Bruce’s Beach in 2006.
Odendahl said the site and park were not part of the Bruces property and would not be part of the transfer to the family.
The value of the property was not assessed, she said.
A return of the land may include an option for the Bruce descendants to lease the land back to the land for continued use.