California Household Whose Beachfront Properties had been Seized 100 years in the past, Sells Land Again to County for $20 Million

By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire

The good-grandchildren of the African American couple Willa and Charles Bruce, whose land in Southern California was taken in 1924 and returned to the household final 12 months, have opted to promote it again to the native authorities for $20 million.

Within the Nineteen Twenties, the seashore resort was extraordinarily widespread with African American vacationers. At the moment, Black folks weren’t permitted on white seashores.

The location grew to become famously often known as “Bruce’s Seashore.”

The youngsters and grandchildren of Charles and Willa Bruce fought for many years to get again the land.

Chief Duane Yellow Feather Shepard, a household historian and spokesman for the Bruce household, acknowledged in a 2021 interview, “It was a really important location as a result of there was nowhere else alongside the California coast the place African People might go to benefit from the water.”

The Ku Klux Klan and different white supremacists usually threatened the Bruce household, however they stored the resort open and took care of the land.

In 1924, the municipal council used eminent area to take the land to construct a park.

However, in accordance with a TV present known as “The Insider,” the realm wasn’t used for a few years.

Willa and Charles Bruce fought again in court docket, however their compensation was solely $14,000. In recent times, native officers have estimated the property’s worth to be as excessive as $75 million.

The world accommodates two coastal properties and is at present used for lifeguard coaching.

Janice Hahn, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, revealed that the household would promote the property again to the native authorities.

Hahn acknowledged that the value was set via an appraisal.

Hahn acknowledged, “That is what reparations appear to be, and it’s a mannequin I hope governments across the nation would undertake.”

The assertion made by Hahn could or is probably not precisely what the Bruce household desired along with the restitution of their land.

In 2021, Anthony Bruce, the great-great-grandson of Willa and Charles Bruce, informed The New York Instances, “An apology can be the least they may do.”

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