MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. — On Friday, Los Angeles County announced a plan to right a historic wrong against Willa and Charles Bruce's family, a Black family that was forced off of their beachfront property in Manhattan Beach through a racially motivated eminent domain process nearly 100 years ago.

If the combined efforts of L.A. County and the state legislature are successful, the land that is controlled by the county and once belonged to the Bruce family will be returned to their descendants by year's end.

"It's monumental. We've been fighting for 96 years to get our land back, even more intensely this past year, and it's finally starting," said Chief Duane Yellow Feather Shepard, a descendant of and representative for the Bruce family. "Somebody finally heard us. Somebody finally found compassion in their heart to do something about what happened to our family."

Shepard was among the speakers at a news conference convened by Los Angeles County Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn, who represents Manhattan Beach. Hahn's conference took place as close as possible to the Bruce family's former land, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

"This is the story of an American Dream that turned into a nightmare," Hahn said. "But hopefully, all of us here can begin to right a wrong that happened 100 years ago, right here where we're standing."

On Monday, State Sen. Steven Bradford will introduce SB 796, a bill that will essentially allow L.A. County to return the land to the Bruce family's descendants by removing existing legal restrictions on land like the Bruce family's. The bill is co-authored by Sen. Ben Allen and Assembly members Al Muratsuchi and Autumn Burke.

"We're going to remove all of the (restrictions) that the state put in place saying what you could use the land for: that you couldn't sell it, that you couldn't use it for commercial, that it would have to be for public access," Bradford said. "So we will be removing all of that, so if the Bruce family decides that they want to commercially develop it, they can do that."

Should SB 796 pass with two-thirds support of both State Legislative Chambers, the bill could become law as soon as this year. Hahn and her fellow members of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors will decide next steps. But Hahn already has the support of fellow Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who was in attendance Friday.

"The County isn't gifting anyone anything. The County is returning property that was inappropriately taken," Mitchell said. "We are returning to the Bruce family, as symbolic as this may be to others, property that they rightfully owned."

The Bruce family came to Manhattan Beach in 1912, when Willa Bruce purchased her family's first lot of land for $1,225. By 1923, her business with husband Charles — Bruce's Lodge resort — was well established, with a snack stand, a dance hall, guest rooms, and beach rentals available. It became a hotspot for Black beachgoers in Los Angeles, and a Black community began to grow.

"Wherever we have tried to buy land for a beach resort, we have been refused, but I own this land, and I am going to keep it," Willa Bruce told the Los Angeles Times in 1912.

But white neighbors didn't take kindly to their success. Black visitors had their cars vandalized and their tires slashed. Black homes were set on fire, and according to one account, Black visitors were frequently arrested on "trumped-up charges."

In the early 1920s, the city of Manhattan Beach passed ordinances pressuring the Bruces and other Black business owners, and following a petition from residents, moved to acquire two blocks of land through eminent domain. In doing so, the Bruces and four other Black landowning families would be forced out, alongside about a dozen White landowners. However, the Black landowners were the only people affected to have built homes and structures upon those lots.

By 1929, the matter was settled; the city had its land, and the Black families were forced to move elsewhere. Although some resettled in Manhattan Beach, the Bruces didn't return. And while Manhattan Beach claimed their eminent domain was done to create a park, no park would be established until 1957. Today, the Bruce family's lots are home to a Los Angeles County Lifeguard building.

Frank Daugherty, a Manhattan Beach city trustee at the time, later wrote that their action "was the only way out" for what he called the "Negro problem."

"I always thought that was the meanest thing I ever did, but I suppose I had to, and all of us thought the same way about it," Daughtery wrote.

Manhattan Beach began reckoning with its past racist actions, after activists like Kavon Ward, of Justice for Bruce's Beach, took the city to task. Late in 2020, the city formed a task force to straighten out the history of Bruce's Beach, and determine next steps. While the City Council approved a handful of measures related to artwork and small monuments, it ignored social justice recommendations and held a heated discussion about issuing a formal apology to the Bruces and other affected Black families.

At its April 6 meeting, the City Council voted against offering an apology, despite dozens of phone calls and hundreds of comments supporting the matter. Instead, the city issued a "Statement of Acknowledgement and Condemnation," which one council member found minimized the racist acts perpetrated against those Black residents.

The majority of the council reasoned that an apology would open the city up to legal liability. On Friday, Shepard attacked the council's decision, saying the Bruce family descendants may pursue legal action anyway.

"We're just telling them to start preparing to revise their budgets, because we're going to make sure that they pay the restitution that we're looking for, in some manner," Shepard said.

At the end of Friday's news conference, Manhattan Beach resident Anne Marie Pearson took issue with the announced plan, telling Supervisor Hahn that "it hurts me that the people here are trying to spoil what we have."

"I'm glad that you've had a good experience here, and many of us love Manhattan Beach," Hahn responded. "But this was historically a wrong that was committed that was not committed against you."