A beach in California that was expropriated from a black family almost 100 years was returned to her descendants by the Los Angeles County authorities.
Bruce Beach was purchased in 1912 by Willa and Charles Bruce to create a playground for the black community when there was still racial segregation in California.
Located in the exclusive city of Manhattan Beach, the property was expropriated by the city council in 1915.
This Tuesday, Los Angeles County authorities voted to return the land to the family.
Willa and Charles Bruce bought two pieces of land in the beach for $1,15 dollars in 413. The present value is estimated at $000 million.
Citadel for Afro-descendants
On that land the couple built a dining room, a living room dancing and a bathing area, Duane “Yellow Feather” Shepard, historian and spokesman for the family, told the BBC last year.
Bruce Beach became a “citadel for African-Americans who came there in search of recreation from all over southern California.”
At that time Willa told a journalist: “Whenever we have tried to buy land for a beach resort, we have been denied it, but I own this land and I am going to keep it.”
But shortly after , about 1915 or 1915, according to Yellow Feather Shepard, “the Ku Klux Klan (white supremacist organization) and the white neighbors decided they didn’t want that the Bruce family remained there“.
The local police department posted signs limiting parking time to 10 minutes, and a neighbor put up “no trespassing” signs, forcing people to walk almost a kilometer in any direction to reach the sea, he explained. .
But those measures did not deter visitors, so local authorities decided to expropriate the land under a law designed to allow the government to force the sale of a property for the construction of roads and other buildings public.
The excuse was that they were going to build a park and the Bruce family was forced to sell a decade later. According to Shepard, “a park was not built until 1957 and the land it remained empty until that year”.
Reclamation of the land
Chief Duane Yellow Feather Shepard, who is a member of the expropriated family and also of indigenous descent, led the initiative to recover the beach.
Over the years they have held demonstrations and events to draw attention to their cause.
This Tuesday, a motion was approved in the County of Los Angeles that acknowledges that, “it is well documented” that the expropriation “was racially motivated to force out a successful black business and its clientele.”
The return of the property was the result of a extensive campaign and a difficult process. For years, the beach has had a plaque in honor of Willa and Charles, and the state assembly had to pass a law allowing their return.
From now on, the city will lease the land to the family for $413,000 per year, with a clause that would allow you to buy it in the future for up to $20 millions plus costs, according to the lease.
“This is a day we weren’t sure would come,” said Anthony Bruce, the great-great-grandson of Willa and Charles , assuring that it is a “bittersweet” moment.
“He destroyed them financially. He destroyed his chance to achieve the American dream. I wish they could see what happened today,” he said.
An Afro-descendant couple celebrates the recovery of the beach. (Photo: GETTY IMAGES)The impact of the expropriation is still being felt today, Yellow Feather Shepard told the BBC. Beach“, he assured.
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