Bruce’s Beach Bill Clears Hurdle In Returning Land To Descendants

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA —The bill allowing for the return of Bruce's Beach to the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce has moved one step further.

On Tuesday, State Senate Bill 796 passed out of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Water with strong bipartisan support, according to Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, who authored the bill.

"SB 796 is what reparations looks like,” Sen. Bradford said in a statement. “This bill recognizes that if you can inherit generational wealth in this country, you can inherit generational debts too.

"In the case of Willa and Charles Bruce, the City of Manhattan Beach, the County, and the State owe a debt that has been compounding for nearly 100 years. I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their clear support of this bill. When it comes to addressing systemic racism, we all need to get involved. I appreciate my fellow legislators for doing the right thing.”

On April 20, the L.A County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to come up with a plan to return the property to the family and to sponsor SB 796, the legislation required to make possible the transfer.

“LA County intends to return the property that was once Bruce’s Beach to the descendants of Charles and Willa Bruce, but we cannot do that without SB 796,” Supervisor Janice Hahn, who has led the effort in the county to return the property, said in a statement. “I appreciate the committee’s unanimous support and I am hopeful that, with the leadership of Senator Bradford, we will soon see this legislation signed into law and the restrictions on the land lifted so that we can begin to right this century old injustice.”

In 1912, a young Black couple named Willa and Charles Bruce purchased beachfront property in Manhattan Beach and built a resort that served Black residents. It was one of the few beaches where Black residents could go because so many other local beaches did not permit Black beachgoers. The Bruces and their customers were harassed and threatened by white neighbors including the KKK. Eventually, the Manhattan Beach City Council moved to seize the property using eminent domain in 1924, purportedly to create a park. The City took the property in 1929 and it remained vacant for decades.

The bill will next go to the Senate Appropriations Committee before coming to the Senate Floor to be voted on by the full Senate. The bill includes an urgency clause, which means the bill will go into effect immediately upon being signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom.