Los Angeles County should serve as an example for the rest of America when it comes to returning lands stolen from African-Americans and people of color, local supervisor Janice Hahn said.
Hahn only “woke up” to the reality of past and present racial prejudice when she learned of a strip of beachfront land in Manhattan Beach, Calif. that was stolen from its black owners more than 100 years ago, she told TMZ Friday.
Hahn helped spearhead a successful crusade to return the land — once known as Bruce’s Beach and operated by Charles and Willa Bruce — to Bruce family descendants.
The Bruces began running the resort in 1912 and it served as a place where black families could enjoy the beach when they were often not welcome elsewhere. After enduring racist harassment and bullying for years, the Bruces’ land was seized by the government by eminent domain in 1924, ostensibly for a private park that was not built for decades.
Actor Kirk Kelley Kahn, 38, of Manhattan Beach, listens to speakers after Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn announced that the process of returning Bruces Beach back to the family of Willa and Charles Bruce has begun in Manhattan Beach on April 9, 2021. Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesThe land is now worth about $72 million.
“I think this is the first time in our nation that a government has given land back to an African American family to make amends for past discrimination and atrocities and policies that were enacted, that really limited African Americans’ ability to own businesses, to own property, to even buy homes in certain neighborhoods,” Hahn told TMZ.
A pedestrian walks past a marker that gives the history of Bruces Beach in Manhattan Beach on April 9, 2021. Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images“This is a very small step towards what I think this whole country should be doing — and that is working to repair and to make amends with the African Americans in this country.”
