Bruce's Beach Deed Returned To Rightful Black Family 98 Years Later

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — The deed to Bruce's Beach has been returned to a Black family, nearly a century after they were stripped of the land.

A ceremony was held Wednesday, where the great-great-grandchildren of the original land-owners were given the deed by the LA County Registrar-Recorder.

The ceremony came after the county's Board of Supervisors voted to return ownership of the prime Manhattan Beach beachfront property to the Bruces.

Willa and Charles Bruce bought the land in 1912 for $1,225 and the couple built the first resort for Black people on the West Coast during a time when many beaches were segregated.

The resort featured a bath house, dance hall and cafe, and attracted Black families who bought neighboring land.

But the family experienced racism, harassment and attacks from white neighbors and the KKK. In 1924, the city's Board of Trustees stripped the Bruces of the land through eminent domain with plans to build a park. The property was demolished five years later, and the city never followed through on the plans. It was transferred to the state in 1948, then seven years later, to the county.

The land parcels now house the county's lifeguard training headquarters and its parking lot.

"This transfer will allow the Bruce family to realize generational wealth, which they have been denied for generations simply because they were black in America," state Sen. Steven Bradford said, according to CNN.

"We have set the precedent in the pursuit of justice," Janice Hahn, a member of the supervisor board, said, according to USA TODAY "Today, we are returning stolen land for the first time, but it will not be the last."

Board chair Holly Mitchell has signed documents that allow the county to lease back the property with an option to buy it for millions.

Anthony Bruce, a family spokesman, previously said in a statement that the return means the world to them, but it is also bittersweet.

"My great-great-grandparents, Willa and Charles Bruce sacrificed to open a business that gave Black people a place to gather and socialize, and Manhattan Beach took it from them because of the color of their skin," he said. "It destroyed them financially. It destroyed their chance at the American Dream."