The Bruces are the proud owners of Bruce's Beach again. Dozens of people gathered in a heartfelt ceremony on the oceanfront property on Wednesday, July 20, to mark the first time the government ever returned land that had been wrongfully taken from a Black family, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who had launched the complex legal and legislative process to transfer the property, said they are sending a message to every government in this nation confronted with the same challenge that this work is no longer unprecedented. Hahn added that they had set a precedent, and it is the pursuit of justice.
Hahn told Anthony and Derrick Bruce, the rightful heirs to the land, that they can't change the past and will never be able to make up for the injustice done to their great-great-grandparents and great-grandparents Willa and Charles nearly a century ago, but this is a start.
Crowd erupted with cheers during the land return ceremony
The crowd erupted with cheers as Anthony held up the certificate of the deed, the document that officially reconnects him with the land that has long carried the name of his family. A few people in the ceremony wiped away tears as the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, the largest majority Black orchestra in the United States, played the hymn "Lift Every Voice and Sing."
State Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), the chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, said that they could not change the injustices done to their people in the past, but they owe it to future generations to eliminate structural and systemic racism that still exists today.
He added that this land transfer represents a template for other states to follow: to fight to repair, and ultimately salvage, what was lost. According to a detailed plan released last month, Los Angeles County will rent the beach property from the Bruces for $413,000 a year and maintain a lifeguard facility there. The lease agreement also includes the right for Los Angeles County to purchase the land at a later date for $20 million, plus any associated transaction costs, CNN reported.
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City officials seized beach property back in 1924
Efforts to return the land to the Bruce family started in 2020 when Hahn learned the history of Bruce's Beach and realized Los Angeles County had the power to right a well-documented wrong.
Charles and Willa Bruce found their way to California in 1912, years after white developers claimed the ancestral homelands of the Tongva people and built what is now known as Manhattan Beach. Willa purchased two lots right by the sand and ran a popular café, lodge, and dance hall that extended a rare welcome to Black beachgoers.
City officials condemned the neighborhood in 1924 and seized more than two dozen properties through eminent domain, citing an urgent need for a public park, according to USA Today. The properties, however, sat empty for decades. Now they are back in the possession of their rightful owners.
