Los angeles county board of supervisors recently agreed to purchase bruce’s beach for $20 million, a sum that will go to the descendants of willa and charles bruce. the bruce family had bought two lots of land for $1,225 in 1912, but were denied the ability to build a beach resort due to their race. janice hahn, chairwoman of the la county board of supervisors, commented on the injustice of the forced seizure of bruce’s beach, noting that the bruce descendants would have been millionaires if it had not been taken.
Forced seizure of bruce’s beach occurred in 1924. the beach is located in manhattan beach, california. the local police department put up signs limiting parking to 10 minutes, and another local landowner put up no trespassing signs, which forced people to walk half a mile to reach the water. in response to these measures, the ku klux klan terror group allegedly made threats. when these efforts failed to deter visitors, the local authorities resorted to the use of eminent domain laws, which allowed them to forcibly buy land needed for public projects.
They claimed that they intended to build a park, however, this did not occur until the 1960s. in june of this year, the county returned the land to the family and agreed to lease it back from them for $413,000 a year in order to continue running the county lifeguard training centre located on the beach. the seizure of bruce’s beach was motivated by racism and prejudice, as the bruce family was denied the ability to build a beach resort due to their race. california’s first-in-the-nation reparations taskforce had recently announced its decision to limit payments to the descendants of black slaves only. the nine-member government panel is scheduled to deliver a report to the governor by next year, with a plan for how the payments will be made.
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