The Clamor For Reparation, is it a Ray of Hope for Black people?
Political Gerrymandering to appease Black Folks
A picture of a smiling California Governor Gavin Newsom shaking hands with Anthony Bruce amid cheers and celebration sits pretty on the front page of The Insider.
It was published on December 7, 2021,
The color and pomp warmly titled “A California court just returned real estate it took from a Black family in 1924. It could be the beginning of a wave of redistribution.” Leaves no doubt as to why it is a groundbreaking story.
In the early 1900s, Willa and Charles owned a beachfront property on the West coast. They turned the property into the first resort for Black people. Appropriately calling it “Bruce’s Lodge,”
Segregated and separated Black people didn’t have access to beaches. “Bruce Lodge” was a heavenly haven. A place to frolic and to have fun.
Except that,
The White Manhattan Beach residents weren’t having any of it. They harangued and harassed the resort’s customers.
The customers ignored the taunts and jeers and swam the prejudices away.
Enter, The Ku Klux Klan, and the fight took a nasty turn.
They set the resort ablaze.
Concerned, the Manhattan Beach City council came on the scene.
In 1924 they voted, to seize the land. Eminent domain a complicated legal right to land chased the Bruce’s out.
The City wanted to turn the land into a public park. They never did.
It remained an empty plot, forlorn and forsaken.
In a show of wealth distribution, the property got new owners. It was transferred to the state, then to LA County.
Twenty years after the plot was seized Frank Doherty one of the city council members who voted to take it couldn’t live with his conscience.
He published an article in the Redondo Reflex newspaper.
“We thought that the Negro problem was going to stop our progress,” he said.
“We had to acquire these two blocks to solve the problem, so we voted to condemn them and make a city park there. We had to protect ourselves.”
The Manhattan Beach government acknowledged racism was the only motive for seizing the Bruce’s Lodge
Now the Pigeons are coming home to roost
Descendants of the Bruce family received a reprieve.
In September of 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the land over to the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce.
Anthony Bruce, a descendant received the property back on behalf of his family.
The press celebrated.
The Insider wrote;
“The state of California signed land back to the Black family it took from years ago.
It marks the first time Black Americans have reclaimed land taken from them by eminent domain.
Activists want this to be a precedent, but there are logistical hurdles.”
It’s not just a logistical hurdle. It’s wishful thinking fraught with historical demons.
Proving original ownership from Court records reduced to ashes will be a logistical nightmare.
The Bruce family isn’t the first Black family to have their land reinstated.
The Hudson and Williams families’ could prove ownership of property that went back all the way to 1874.
Alabama Governor Don Siegelman read the AP findings and found them “disturbing.” He asked for a review.
On Jun 1, 2002, The AP reported — ‘Alabama family regains land’
The article published in Deseret News read, “An Alabama family got back its farmland Friday after claiming for decades that a segregation-era court order had wrongly given the 40 acres to the state. Gov. Don Siegelman called the family “the rightful owners.”
In signing a document making the transfer, the governor said, “The land was really just taken by the state . . . by a legal technicality.”
Siegelman reviewed the land-taking claim by Willie Williams of Sweet Water after it was detailed in an Associated Press story. “Thank you for bringing this matter to the public’s attention,” Siegelman said while signing what he described as an unprecedented land grant by an Alabama Governor.”
The Williams family finally got Justice. Now it’s the Bruce’s family turn.
Which pigeon is coming home to roost next?