Sandbox: Should white families who owned 25 of the 30 Bruce’s Beach lots in Manhattan Beach also receive reparation?
Over 130 members of the Bruce Family gathered at Bruce’s Beach Park in July, 2014 to celebrate their family’s Manhattan Beach history. Photo by D’Aughn Thomas by Russ Lesser A petition is being circulated in Manhattan Beach and online demanding the descendents of Charles and Willa Bruce be given the land that is now Bruce’s Beach Park on Highland Avenue, overlooking the ocean, in Manhattan Beach. The city took the parkland through eminent domain in 1924. The petitioners also want the Bruce descendents paid restitution, an amount estimated to be $75 million. While it is agreed what happened to the Bruces and other Black families in Manhattan Beach in 1924 was wrong, there are some problems with the petitioners’ two demands. First, the Bruce family did not own any of what is now Bruce’s Beach Park. The Bruces owned two lots adjacent to the park, on The Strand, where the Los Angeles County Lifeguard building now sits. The petitioners will need to ask the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to tear down the lifeguard building and give the land back to the Bruce family. Secondly, 30 lots were acquired by the city through eminent domain on the pretense of building a park. Twenty…
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