“They were building community and spreading the wealth within the community and enhancing other Black people, and it was all stripped away,” the founder of the advocacy group Where Is My Land said.
— BY, ALICIA VICTORIA LOZANO AND LINDSEY DAVIS
LOS ANGELES — With the flick of a pen Thursday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom will codify the return of prime beachfront property in Southern California to the descendants of a Black couple who were stripped of their land and driven out by the Ku Klux Klan nearly 100 years ago.
California lawmakers this month unanimously passed a law to allow the return of what was once a thriving coastal resort that catered to Black residents when racial segregation barred them from many beaches.
What is known as Bruce’s Beach in Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles County was purchased in 1912 by Willa and Charles Bruce, who built a lodge, a cafe, a dance hall and dressing tents with bathing suits for rent on land that now houses the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Training Center.
