The event marked the final step in a complex effort to address the long-ago wrong suffered by Charles and Willa Bruce, entrepreneurs whose resort on the shore of the now-upscale city of Manhattan Beach was known as Bruce’s Beach.
State Sen. Steven Bradford, who authored a state bill that was necessary to enable the county to transfer the land to the heirs, said it will not reverse the injustice. The land was purchased by the Bruces in 1912. They suffered racist harassment from white neighbors, and in the 1920s, the Manhattan Beach City Council condemned the property and took the land through eminent domain. The city, however, did nothing with the property, and it was transferred to the state of California in 1948.tap here to see other videos from our teamIn 1995, the state transferred it to Los Angeles County, with restrictions against further transfers.
“They told me nothing like this had ever been done before,” she told the gathering, adding that such a move is now no longer unprecedented.