The second life of Bruce’s Beach
by Mark McDermott First of two parts Willa Bruce bought oceanfront land between 26th and 27th Street in Manhattan Beach on February 15, 1912, 10 months before the city was incorporated. She had a vision for the property as a respite for Black folks during an unjust time, “a little breathing space at the seaside where they might have a little holiday,” Bruce told the Los Angeles Times shortly after obtaining the property. Photos of Willa and her husband, Charles, show an elegant couple with a world-wise, yet resolute look in their eyes, traits which would be put to a test both before and after the purchase. “Whenever we have tried to buy land for a beach resort, we have been refused,” Bruce said. “But I own this land, and I am going to keep it.” By 1919, Bruce’s Beach was bustling, and six more African American families had joined the Bruces as property owners and residents at the beach. It was a colorful cast of characters, which included Major George Prioleau, a former slave who, after the Civil War, became one of the first African American chaplains to serve in the U.S. Army (in the Ninth Cavalry, the all Black regiments known as “Buffalo Soldiers”), and the widow Mary R…
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