WP2 BLOG 1: Displacement

Image Credits: Pete Morris on californiabeaches.com (Top); The Guardian (Bottom)

Being born and raised in Manhattan Beach, I immediately planned on doing my Writing Project 2 on my hometown’s Bruce’s Beach, specifically amendments to rectify the displacement via eminent domain that occurred a hundred years ago. Coincidentally, one of our assigned readings covered the story of Bruce’s Beach. On September 30, 2021, California’s Governor Newsom returned the property to the Bruce family along with condemning/apologizing for the racial discrimination as local authorities forced the family, against their will, to sell the first resort for African Americans on the west coast. While returning the land and giving the Bruce family the freedom to use the property however they chose, the local authorities in the 1920s took away the family wealth and inheritance. Being worth $72 million, the family should be compensated for more than the mere $14,500 that they received from the city in 1929. While the acknowledgement of California’s pastime wrongdoings and returning the land are important first steps, I believe, similar to the LA Times Kirsten Mullen and William A. Darity Jr., that the state should work to repay all of the family for robbing them of their future family fortunes. I agree that detailed research from oral historians and folklorists and fact checking should be done to correctly return the money that the Bruce family rightfully deserves.