LOS ANGELES — The descendants of a Black family that once owned a thriving oceanfront resort in Manhattan Beach could get the property back under state legislation announced Friday.
Backers of the proposal introduced by Democratic state Sen. Steven Bradford, of Gardena, say it is the first step toward correcting a historic injustice when the city seized the resort of Charles and Willa Bruce and forced Black beachgoers out of town 100 years ago.
The bill, if passed, would allow Los Angeles County, which currently runs a lifeguard center on the site, to transfer the property to the Bruce family. State legislation is necessary to lift the restriction that the state placed on the property when it transferred the two parcels to L.A. County in 1995.
"We stand here today to introduce a bill that will correct this gross injustice and allow the land to be returned to the Bruce family," Bradford said Friday. "It is my hope that this legislation will not be the last in a series of actions by the state to address centuries of atrocious actions against Black Americans."
The issue has stirred controversy in the nearly all-white city. After hours of heated public testimony, the City Council on Tuesday night voted against issuing an apology, despite many residents urging them during public comments to do so. Officials decided, instead, to issue a "statement of acknowledgement and condemnation" of what happened.
Many have said apologizing is an important step forward, while other longtime residents and community leaders have pushed back, arguing that the residents of today shouldn't apologize for something that happened almost 100 years ago. Some have also expressed concern that issuing a formal apology could open the city up to potential lawsuits.
In 1912, Willa Bruce had purchased for $1,225 the first of two lots along the Strand between 26th and 27th streets. While her husband, Charles, worked as a dining-car chef on the train running between Salt Lake City and L.A., Willa ran a popular lodge, café and dance hall — providing Black families a way to enjoy a weekend on the coast.
Many referred to this area as Bruce's Beach. A few more Black families, drawn to this new community, bought and built their own cottages by the sea.
The Bruces and their guests faced years of threats and harassment from white neighbors. The Ku Klux Klan purportedly set fire to a mattress under the main deck and torched a Black-owned home nearby.
When racism failed to drive the Bruce's Beach community out of town, city officials in 1924 condemned the neighborhood and seized more than two dozen properties through eminent domain. The reason, they said, was an urgent need for a public park.
But for decades, the properties sat empty. The Bruce's oceanfront parcels were transferred to the state in 1948, then to the county in 1995. As for the remaining lots, city officials eventually turned them into a park, which many residents know today as a pretty stretch of grass overlooking the sea.
