There has been a new development in the historic transaction between Los Angeles County and the Black heirs of Charles and Willa Bruce.
On Tuesday, it was announced that the Bruce family will be selling two parcels of their Manhattan Beach property back to the county for nearly $20 million, Daily Breeze reported. An act of property-based reparations, this move comes fewer than six months after the county acknowledged that the land had been stolen from the family’s ancestors.
As BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported, Bruce’s Beach, a successful resort for Blacks, was purchased in 1912 by Black husband-and-wife duo Charles and Willa Bruce. While facing racial discrimination and harassment, the couple had their property seized by city officials through eminent domain in 1924.
After nearly 100 years, L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn launched the process of returning the property to the descendants of the Bruces in April 2021. In July 2022, the family officially secured ownership of the seaside property, with an agreement that the county would lease a lifeguard station on the property for about $400,000 a year.
In a KBLA radio interview, George Fatheree III, the Bruce family’s attorney, confirmed that the sale was possible thanks to an additional compromise that allowed the option to sell the property back to the county, according to The LA Times.
“What was stolen from the family was the property, but what the property represented was the ability to create and preserve and group and pass down generational wealth,” Fatheree said in the interview. “And by allowing the family now to have certainty in selling this property to the county, taking the proceeds of that sale, and investing it in their own futures — that’s restoring some of what the family lost. I think we all need to respect the family’s decision to know what’s in its best interest.”
In a statement, Hahn echoed Fatheree, describing the sale as an opportunity for the Bruce family to get a glimpse of what generational wealth looks like, as well as an example of reparations in progress.
“This fight has always been about what is best for the Bruce family,” Hahn said, “and they feel what is best for them is selling this property back to the County for nearly $20 million and finally rebuilding the generational wealth they were denied for nearly a century.”
“This is what reparations look like,” she added, “and it is a model that I hope governments across the country will follow.”