TURNING TIDE

Los Angeles County Votes to Return Bruce’s Beach Seized From Black Family in 1924

“This is the first time the government has returned property to a Black family after acknowledging it had been improperly taken,” attorney George Fatheree said.

Nearly a century after it was seized from a Black family by city officials, a piece of oceanfront land in Los Angeles is being returned. A Los Angeles County commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to return the area once known as Bruce’s Beach in Manhattan Beach to the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce, from whom it was taken. The couple bought the land in 1912 and turned it into a resort popular with Black beachgoers, only for California officials to seize the neighborhood in 1924 under eminent domain, arguing there was a need for a public park. The land is now in the process of being transferred to the Bruces and the county will rent property from the family. “To our knowledge, this is the first time the government has returned property to a Black family after acknowledging it had been improperly taken,” said real estate transaction lawyer George Fatheree, who represented the Bruce’s pro bono. “We’re hopeful that it will not be the last.”