Bruce’s Beach heirs to sell land back to Los Angeles county for $20m
GuardianDec 25, 2022
The Facts
A southern California beachfront property that was taken from a Black couple through eminent domain a century ago and returned to their heirs last year will be sold back to Los Angeles County for $20M. The land had been transferred to the State of California and then to LA County.
The land within the city of Manhattan Beach was bought in 1912 by Willa and Charles Bruce, who built a small resort for African Americans. The Bruce's faced racist harassment from white neighbors, and in the 1920s, the Manhattan Beach City Council condemned the property and seized it citing eminent domain.
The Spin
Narrative A
The Bruce family would be very wealthy had their land not been stolen from them in the 1920s. Selling the land will allow them to rebuild the generational wealth denied a century ago. This is what reparations look like, and other governments across the US should follow suit.
Narrative B
While this case may seem like a success story of reparations, large-scale restitution for Black Americans is a bad idea. Most proposals for reparations plans exclude large swaths of those impacted by slavery and racism in the US and include racist requirements for who would benefit from the programs.
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