Bruce’s Beach Taken From Black Couple Returned After Almost 100 Years

Los Angeles officials have returned the California oceanfront resort to descendants of a Black couple, Willa and Charles Bruce, who were racially harassed and stripped of their properly nearly 100 years ago.

Gatekeepers News reports that the land transfer follows years of work by activists, the family and city officials who fought for t​​​he former Manhattan Beach resort to be returned to the family.

Willa and Charles Bruce had purchased the land in 1912 and built the first resort for Black people on the West Coast. Members of the Ku Klux Klan had attempted to burn down the property, and the Bruces were constantly harassed by white neighbors.

The Manhattan Beach Board of Trustees took the land on 1924 through eminent domain with plans to build a park. The Bruces’ property was condemned and demolished in 1929.

The city, however, did nothing with the land and it was transferred to the state of California in 1948.

The land was transferred again in 1995 to the county, with restrictions on further transfers that could only be lifted through state legislation.

After discovering the Bruces’ story, Kavon Ward founded Justice for Bruce’s Beach, a grassroots movement to restore the family’s land and fight for the reparations of Black and Indigenous people.

On Wednesday, the land was officially handed over to the couple’s great-great grandson, Anthony Bruce,

During a ceremony on the shoreline of upscale city Manhattan Beach, Anthony was given a copy of the land transfer.

“We have set the precedent in the pursuit of justice,” said Janice Hahn, a member of the Board of Supervisors who helped lead the effort to return the land. “Today, we are returning stolen land for the first time, but it will not be the last.”

The official transfer of land to legal heirs and great-grandsons Marcus and Derrick Bruce came after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to return ownership June 28. LA County said the agreement allows the property to be leased back to the county for 24 months with an annual rent of $413,000 and lists the county’s right to purchase the land for up to $20 million.

The great-grandsons formed a company to hold the property.