Let’s Unpack This
White Theft of Black Land, or, When Not Even Reparations Are Enough
The Bruce family should have been millionaires by now, but California officials brazenly stole their beachfront property
White people stealing land from Black people is a tale as old as time. It happened in Mississippi, where Black landowners “lost” 12 million acres over the past century. It happened in Chicago after White people cheated aspiring Black homeowners with predatory contracts. It happened in California when Los Angeles County officials used eminent domain to steal land from Anthony Bruce’s ancestors in 1924.
Anthony is a descendant of Willa and Charles Bruce, who became Manhattan Beach’s first Black landowners in 1912. By 1924, the Bruces created a thriving beach resort that doubled as a safe space for Black people to enjoy. White neighbors and members of the KKK terrorized the family for years before city officials condemned the land and claimed they needed it for a public park. They stripped the family of millions in future generational wealth, paying them only $14,500 after the family tried to sue. (Of course they lost the case.)
It truly doesn’t get more American than that.
