In 1924, the mayor’s office of Manhattan Beach (Los Angeles County, California), using the state’s eminent domain, took away from Will and Charles Bruce, the first black landowners in the city, their piece of land on the ocean.
The couple also ran a boarding house for black families on their land.
A city park, now owned by Los Angeles County, has been set up on a portion of the site, which houses the rescue office and training center. And now the county administration is looking for ways to eliminate the injustice that was committed a hundred years ago in relation to the Bruce family. County Administrator Janice Khan said they are considering several options, including returning the site to the descendants of the family, paying compensation for material loss, or renting the site to keep the rescue office building on it.
The site, acquired by the Bruce a hundred years ago, is now valued at $ 75 million. Anthony Bruce, the only living direct heir to the family now living in Florida, said the confiscation of the site was “an injustice that robbed him of his family heritage.” “I think we would now be rich Americans and live in California – possibly in Manhattan Beach,” he added.
Newspaper headline:
Justice in a hundred years