Today, 95 years later, Bruce Beach Gets Returned To its’ Black Owners’ Descendants
A short story, a glimpse into the history of Bruce Beach being returned back to its long-overdue rightful owners’ descendants as Governor Newsom signs the law to do so.
Bruce Beach, in the city of Manhattan Beach, may return to its rightful owner. For hundreds of years, African AmeAmericansve faced many similar plights where homes, lands, inventions, music, and dance have been stolen and the day has come for much to be reckoned with. Yes, it is time for many, African America, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, to get their forty acres and a mule. Much has been stolen from others since the large migration to America and continued up to this very day. Hitting closer to home, my paternal grandmother in Alabama had much property and it was easy to see when their land was at danger of being stolen right before our eyes after her passing but was thwarted. It is a known fact that many have had their land taken for one reason or another, i.e. taxes, railroad installation, parks, etc.
To date, Los Angeles County has had an awakening moment where much consideration to return prime beachfront property to their rightful owners, descendants of a Black couple who built a seaside resort for African Americans but due to racism, their land was taken away by the city leaders a century ago. Nothing new here,age-old old story and tactic. Sooner or later, wrong will be reckoned with and today is the testament as there is much more needed to come. Over the last decades, multiple properties have been transferred back, justice came home and is coming home to roost once again and there is more needed to come.
Bruce’s Beach as its name implies the owner, Willa and Charles Bruce, purchased this property that encompassed two parcels and was purchased in 1912, for $1,225, where they built the first West Coast resort for Blacks, during a high peak of segregation, where Blacks were prohibited from many beaches. They were a class act where they built on the parcel a lodge, café, dance hall and dressing tents with bathing suits for attendees to rent. Bruce Beach, aka, Bruce Lodge, became a hot spot for Blacks as they flocked there from every corner of the world to enjoy such high-end beaching along the beach. With the large migration of Blacks to Bruce’s beach, many other Blacks purchased homes and built their own cottages by the sea. Note in 1924, the city condemned the neighborhood and seized more than two dozen properties through eminent domain in pursuant of a park that never happened.
Similarly to Tulsa Oklahoma’s Massacres, where Blacks prosperity became the raft of Whites as they sought to snatch their independence and prosperity away from the blacks by any means necessary. In Tulsa, they used physical force with fire and explosives, Bruce Lodge’s owners and customers faced much harassments by whites and the Ku Klux Klan as they attempted to burn it down. Shortly thereafter, the Manhattan Beach City Council used eminent domain taking the land away from the Bruces. Can you imagine if the Bruces contained their property and passed it down to their descendants, what pride and appreciation all would have been and provided an alternative when being suppressed by another race. This type of thievery and suppression has not stopped as I type these words but today hopefully one more wrong will be righted.
Did the land get turned into a park, no! It remained unused for many years and later was transferred to the state of California in 1948, later to be transferred to the Los Angeles County in 1995 for beach operations and maintenance. Restrictions on this property prevented it being sold or transferred until new legislation, SB 796, was introduced to exempt this stolen land from those restrictions. Thank God, someone has a conscience, Supervisor Janice Hahn. If this law passes, and gets approved by the Board of Supervisors, it will be a new day for the descendants of the Bruces, having their heir property returned. While the City Council condemned such atrocities toward the Bruces as well as other Black families, no apology seem to be forthcoming. Perhaps, when all is said and done, an apology will be made, so that the nation can heal by acknowledging the sins of their forfathers.
In conclusion, regretfully, I am happy to admit, this Country has been built on thievery and suppression and for the healing of this nation, the truth must be told and the wrongs must be righted.
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