Willa Bruce managed the affairs of her family-owned businesses, including a Manhattan Beach, CA cafe, lodge, and dance hall. Her husband Charles worked as a chef on train cars. Both saved every penny earned so they could realize a family dream.
Finally, in 1912, the Bruce family paid $1,225 to purchase two lots of pristine beach property! Black people were excluded from most L.A. beaches, so their beach became an oasis for our people to seek weekend peace and relaxation.
But things weren’t all good in the neighborhood.
Bruce’s Beach visitors withstood harassment from envious white people, including slashed tires, fake parking restriction signs, and even trash fires!
Then in 1924, the city intervened to side with white agitators, claiming “eminent domain” was a justifiable reason to seize the valuable property from its rightful owners.
Almost a century later, Willa and Charles’s descendants are fighting to have the property – worth $75 MILLION today – returned. And that just might happen!
LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn has said she is considering returning the property to the Bruce family.
Let’s hope justice is served. For one, Black folks deserve leisure and a legacy of wealth. But ultimately, we must fight to hold onto our property and educate our descendants on what their rights are when it comes to retrieving land from those who would steal it from us!