Los Angeles Returned Land to a Black Family. Was It Reparations?
The lawyer representing the heirs of Willa and Charles Bruce — owners of Bruce’s Beach resort — says current laws fail to provide a remedy for property that was unlawfully seized from Black owners decades ago.
A monument at Bruce’s Beach Park acknowledges and condemns the historical injustices of Bruce's Beach at 26th Street and Highland Avenue, in Manhattan Beach, California.
Photographer: Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Ever since Los Angeles returned unlawfully seized land to the heirs of Willa and Charles Bruce — the Black owners of the century-old Bruce’s Beach resort — last year, racial justice advocates have been questioning whether this constitutes an act of reparations, and if it’s replicable in other cities and counties.
The lawyer who represented the Bruce family, George C. Fatheree, isn’t completely sure reparations is the correct label. Speaking at a summit in Asheville, North Carolina, last month, Fatheree said that if the return of Bruce’s Beach is indeed reparations, it’s an “inadequate” form because it doesn’t address the tangible and intangible losses suffered by the wider Black community who lost a place of refuge and leisure, as well as economic opportunities. But he stands by the idea that the Bruce’s Beach case is instructive for unlocking a broader view of how reparations can be realized, by looking at how public institutions can make amends for racist actions that have devastated Black families throughout history.