Los Angeles to pay $20 million to Black family after racist officials confiscated their land in 1924

On Wednesday, The New York Timesreported that the heirs to the infamous "Bruce's Beach," who finally received their family's land back after racist city officials confiscated it from their Black family a century ago, will now sell it back to L.A. County for $20 million.

"The Manhattan Beach site once housed Bruce’s Lodge, a resort established in 1912 by the property’s owners, Willa and Charles Bruce, as a place where Black tourists could go to avoid harassment at a time of rampant discrimination against Black people in California and beyond. It was known informally as 'Bruce’s Beach,'" reported Mike Ives, noting the Bruces were among the first Black families to settle in the area. "Manhattan Beach officials condemned the property in 1924, paying the Bruces $14,500 and saying that they needed it for a public park. They ultimately left it undeveloped for more than three decades, and the couple lost a legal battle to reclaim it. The land was later transferred to Los Angeles County and now hosts a training center for lifeguards."

"But three years ago, nationwide demonstrations against racism and police brutality led to a resurgence of local interest in the Bruce family’s campaign," said the report. "And last July, after Los Angeles County and the California state legislature worked out the legal details, the county returned to the property to the couple’s closest living heirs, their great-grandsons Derrick and Marcus Bruce."

At that time, the property value was unclear but believed to be up to $75 million. The $20 million figure is the result of a new property appraisal.

"A persistent question has been whether officials in Manhattan Beach, a city of about 34,000 people that was incorporated in 1912 and is 75 percent white, would issue a formal apology to the Bruce family," said the report. "'I think an apology would be the least that they can do,' Anthony Bruce, the great-great-grandson of Willa and Charles Bruce, told The New York Times in 2021."

The mayor of Manhattan Beach declined to offer comment to the story, according to the report.