Los Angeles to pay $20M for beach property seized from Black family in 1920s News
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Los Angeles to pay $20M for beach property seized from Black family in 1920s

County of Los Angeles (CLA) Supervisor of the Fourth District Janice Hahn Tuesday announced that CLA will buy back Bruce’s Beach, a waterfront property seized from the Bruce family in the 1920s on the basis of their race.

The Bruce family decided to sell the property back to the CLA for $20 million paid to Willa and Charles Bruce’s living decedents approximately 100 years later. In her announcement, Hahn stated, “This is what reparations look like and it is a model that I hope governments across the country will follow.” 

On June 28, 2022, the CLA announced that the property would be returned to the Bruce family as the legal heirs to the property. The statement acknowledged the systemic racial injustice suffered by the Bruce family and that the family was denied decades of intergenerational wealth because of the seizure.

The resolution of the CLA Board of Supervisors stated the following:

  • The property was originally purchased in 1920 by the Bruce family, and a beachside hotel was operated by the family.
  • In 1924, the Manhattan Beach Board of Trustees voted to destroy the hotel, and the property was “condemned” for the purpose of creating a park.
  • However, “it is well documented that this move was a racially motivated attempt to drive out the successful Black business, its patrons and other Black property owners in the area.”
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