MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif.—After a protracted legal process that led to the return of pristine Manhattan Beach coastal property to a black family that had the land stripped from them nearly a century ago, the family has decided to sell the parcel back to the county for $20 million, the county confirmed on Jan. 3.
“This is what reparations look like and it is a model that I hope governments across the country will follow,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement Tuesday.
Charles and Willa Bruce purchased the land in 1912 and operated a resort for black residents until the City of Manhattan Beach condemned the property under the false pretense of developing a park. Instead, the property sat vacant for years after the Bruces and other black families were evicted from the area.
Hahn spearheaded the effort to have the land returned to the Bruces’ descendants. The county, which ultimately wound up owning the property, held a formal ceremony in July to officially hand over the property deed to the family.
Under an agreement approved by the Board of Supervisors in late June, the land was officially transferred to Marcus and Derrick Bruce, great-grandsons of Charles and Willa Bruce. The Bruces were then set to lease the land back to the county for $413,000 a year for the continued operation of county lifeguard facilities at the site.
The agreement also included clauses that would allow the Bruces to sell the property to the county for a price not to exceed $20 million.
The family this week opted to make that $20 million sale.
Willa and Charles Bruce purchased their land in 1912 for $1,225. They eventually added some other parcels and created a beach resort catering to black residents.
Complete with a bathhouse, dance hall, and cafe, the resort attracted other black families who purchased adjacent land and created what they hoped would be an oceanfront retreat.
The city moved to condemn their property and surrounding parcels in 1924, seizing it through eminent domain under the pretense of planning to build a city park.
The resort was forced out of business, and the Bruces and other black families ultimately lost their land in 1929.
The families sued, claiming they were the victims of a racially motivated removal campaign. The Bruces were eventually awarded some damages, as were other displaced families.
Despite the city claiming the land was needed for a park, the property sat vacant for decades. It was not until 1960 that a park was built on a portion of the seized land, with city officials fearing the evicted families could take new legal action if the property wasn’t used for the purpose for which it was seized.
The exact parcel of land the Bruces owned was transferred to the state, and then to the county in 1995.
The city park that now sits on a portion of the land seized by the city has borne a variety of names over the years. But it was not until 2006 that the city agreed to rename the park “Bruce’s Beach” in honor of the evicted family.
