The article explores the history of Bruce’s Beach, oceanfront land in Manhattan Beach, California, that was bought by a Black family – the Bruce family –  in 1912, and their loss of the land through the City of Manhattan Beach’s racially motivated use of eminent domain in 1927.

Excerpt: 

“Black Los Angeles, or at least its leaders and its boosters, embraced the notion of the West as a land of opportunity,” Flamming said. “Although we don’t think of LA much as the West now, it certainly was a Western city then. People talked about it as such, people praised it as such, with the idea that the West was that last best chance, an open place for opportunity.” 

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