Wealth Deferred
How long must we wait?
During July’s monthly meeting, we discussed wealthy or well to do communities of African-Americans that were either destroyed, like Tulsa, Oklahoma and communities that were taken from their Black owners.
These things definitely had a negative economic impact on Black communities infringing on the possibility of generational wealth.
So, I decided for my next few posts to discuss these communities.
I’ll start with Bruce’s Beach in Manhattan Beach.
Before I knew anything about Bruce’s Beach, when I first moved to Los Angeles in ‘95, I would get up really early on Sunday mornings, go to church at Agape which was in Santa Monica at the time and after that, I would drive south to Manhattan Beach. It was and still is my favorite beach in southern California.
There weren’t too many things I like about the Los Angeles area but there were two areas that I loved. Pasadena and Manhattan Beach.
After church, I would spend a few hours at Manhattan Beach writing and dreaming about living in one of the beach front properties. Though, the population then and now is mostly white, I still felt very at home and at peace.
This beach is filled with wonderful memories. It was there in 2002 where I received a call from my agent on my birthday, letting me know that the writers of Frasier had read one of my scripts and wanted to meet me. Two weeks later, I was hired as a staff writer for Frasier.
To my surprise, a decade later, I found out my favorite beach used to be owned by Black people.
I was like say what?
Above pictured is Charles and Willa Bruce on their wedding day.
You see in 1912 and 1920 the couple purchased two lots of land along the Strand of Manhattan Beach from a white real estate broker Henry Willard. The lot that was purchased in 1912 cost $1225.
Before moving to California for the great American dream, Willa was raised in Missouri in the 1860s, a slave state. Her mother had been a slave. Willa moved to New Mexico where she met Charles. They married, had a son and then moved to California in hopes of a better life free from Jim Crow laws.
At the time of purchase, no one really wanted this land even with it’s beautiful oceanic view. It was very difficult to get there and there were little public works.
After purchasing the land, the Bruces turned the beach into a seaside resort called Bruce’s lodge. It welcomed Black beachgoers from all over and became known as Bruce’s beach.
Within a week of purchasing the land, neighboring whites threatened them to leave. The KKK purportedly set fire to a mattress under the main deck and torched a Black-owned home nearby.
Klansmen organized a 24-hour phone committee to intimidate and terrorize the Bruces anonymously.
“Wherever we have tried to buy land for a beach resort, we have been refused,” Willa said in a 1912 interview with the Los Angeles Times, “but I own this land and I am going to keep it.”
And they did. They kept the land for about a decade despite the ongoing harassment. They ran a popular lodge, bathhouses, outdoor sports, cafe and a dance hall.
Pressured from angry whites, the city of Manhattan Beach deemed Bruce’s Beach eminent domain. The city acquired this beach and other properties that were Black-owned.
The Bruces sued for $120,000. In 1929, they received $14,500. The property remained undeveloped for decades. Basically, we don’t want you Black people to have it, but we’re happy with just letting it sit here as long as you’re on it.
Charles Bruce died in 1931 and Willa died 3 years later. According to Anthony Bruce, she ended up working as a dishwasher.
In 2006, Manhattan Beach’s first and only elected Black official, Mayor Mitch Ward, asked to rename the park Bruce Beach and that the city acknowledge it’s racial discrimination history.
In March of 2007, the beach was ceremonious renamed Bruce’s Beach.
On June 19, 2020, a Juneteenth commemoration picnic was held at Bruce's Beach park. Kavon Ward, a Manhattan Beach resident, created the event to draw attention to the seizure of the land by the city of Manhattan Beach. Ward wanted to use policy to deed the land back to the Bruce family.
Following the event, Ward founded the advocacy coalition Justice for Bruce's Beach. Justice for Bruce's Beach held a rally and march to apply public pressure to return the land to the Bruce family.
A task force was created and recommended a full apology to the Bruce family and include a dedicated plaque. The plaque happened, but according to the Santa Fe New Mexican, as of 2023, the family never received an apology.
The plaque reads as follows.
"After being turned away from other coastal cities, Willa and Charles Bruce purchased property along the Strand in Manhattan Beach to create a beach resort for the area’s Black community on February 19, 1912. By 1916, the resort known as “Bruce’s Beach” was a thriving fixture for visiting Blacks, with a restaurant, dancehall, changing rooms, and showers.
"Soon after, several other Black families purchased property and built homes in the area where this park is now, including Major George Prioleau and Mrs. Ethel Prioleau, Elizabeth Patterson, Mary R. Sanders, Milton and Anna Johnson, John McCaskill and Elzia L. Irvin, and James and Lulu Slaughter.
"Unfortunately, not everyone in Manhattan Beach welcomed the Bruces’ enterprise and its crowds of Black patrons in that era of Jim Crow and racial segregation.
"The Bruces, their patrons, and the other Black property owners in the area faced harassment, intimidation, and discrimination by some, including City Hall. The purpose of these actions was to make Manhattan Beach inhospitable to Black residents and visitors.
"Enough White residents ultimately pressured the City Council to exercise its power of eminent domain to acquire the land for use as a public park. The City condemned the properties of the Bruces, Prioleaus, Johnsons, Patterson, and Sanders. Twenty-five White-owned properties that sat undeveloped among the Black-owned properties were condemned as well.
"The City’s action at the time was racially motivated and wrong. Today, the City acknowledges, empathizes, and condemns those past actions. We are not the Manhattan Beach of one hundred years ago. We reject racism, hate, intolerance, and exclusion.
"This park is named in memory of Bruce’s Beach and in recognition of Manhattan Beach’s next one hundred years as a city of respect and inclusion.
As we all know. A plaque is not enough.
Show the Bruce family the MONEY!
And because by now with all the land transfers of the property and it being a public park, higher authority had to come into play, so in 2021 the California State Senate approved a bill for the property to be returned to the descendants of the Bruce family.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed the legislation on September 20, 2021.
In 2022, it was confirmed that Marcus and Derrick Bruce were the great-grandsons of Willa and Charles Bruce and the legal heirs. The two oceanfront parcels were returned to them.
In 2023, the Bruce family decided to sell the property back to Los Angeles for $20 million.
It took almost 100 years for the property to be rightfully returned to the family.
According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, the family really wanted to keep the property, but it was going to be a long arduous journey. Derrick Bruce, who was 65 in 2023, said he could not imagine learning to become a developer and a contractor at this stage in his life. The proceeds will at least allow the Bruces to pass on wealth to their younger generation.
Most stories where land was taken or destroyed by angry whites did not end in a happy ending. I will explore more of those in my next post.
I keep thinking about how I have always been drawn to this beach and there are many beautiful beaches in California, but this one has always called me. Spoke to me. And mind you, I don’t live close by but I would take the drive most Sunday mornings. Maybe in some energetic way, their spirits were calling me there.
I look forward to diving more into this story and others at my next monthly discussion. Join me Saturday, August 31st at 11am (pst)/1pm (cst)/2pm (est) for paid subscribers.
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Best,
Danita
Resources
The Santa Fe New Mexican, Sun, Feb 19, 2023
Los Angeles Times, Sun, July 21, 2002
I couldn’t agree more. And I bet if the family was able to keep the land, they would have had the knowledge or gained the knowledge to keep their family in the business of land development. And other things to protect their wealth. It breaks my heart that they were forced out and to think of the emotional toll that they endured just to keep the land for a decade. Terrorized to leave. Those scars linger and pass down for generations.
How long? It breaks my heart that Marcus or Derrick Bruce at 65 years old didn't have the financial literacy or education to take advantage of this amazing windfall and reconciliation. That's the other culprit that's plagued our culture for generations. Not a week, month or annually but for generations! And not only Black citizens. Those of you who are under the illusion of inclusion are affected as well. Instead this family had to sell for 20 million dollars back to the people that stuck the "green weenie" to them in the first place. My hope and prayer would be that their heirs will have the financial literacy, the wherewithal, the education to benefit themselves and their next generation with the twenty millie. #streetsmarts
Knowing that they probably won't get the whole twenty because they'll get taxed for their lack of financial education and literacy.
I hope someone in that family buys my books. That's what they're written for. To be the on ramp to financial literacy. To prepare anyone for their financial windfall.
If this was me, you would see me sitting in my Sun-Flow chair every day just kicking cans on my beach property now known as Spencer's Beach and kicking people off of it while I made decisions for the property after putting it in a trust and compounding the interest year after year. #YOY
I'd make the city lease the property from me for millions a year. I'd be compounding that money too until the day I decided to kick everyone off of it for fun. I would call this racial fun at the beach and stay rich too. LOL And I'm 65. #Nevertoolate As I like to say let's get it like Getty baby #TRUST