LA to pay $20 million to African-American family for forcibly acquiring land
A deserted beach is pictured following a tsunami warning in Orewa, north of Auckland
Los Angeles will pay an African-American family USD 20 million nearly a century after it seized a beach from them. The land was finally returned to the descendants of the original owners who were forced by the authorities to sell the prime parcel of land they owned. This forced acquisition took place in 1920s when widespread racial segregation was a common thing in the US.
Bruce's Beach, in the desirable city of Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles county, was purchased by Willa and Charles Bruce with plans to build a resort for African-American people.
But the family faced strong opposition from the local community over their ownership of the land. The couple even received threats from the White Supremacist group Ku Klux Klan. When all coercive measures to wrest the land from Bruces didn't work, the government authorities moved in (1924) and invoked a law that enabled them to forcibly acquire the land under the pretext of building roads and public buildings.
The authorities maintained that a public park would be built on the land taken from the Bruce family. The park didn't come up till 1960s, nearly 40 years after the land was acquired forcibly.
"The seizure of Bruce's Beach nearly a century ago was an injustice inflicted upon not just Willa and Charles Bruce but generations of their descendants who almost certainly would have been millionaires," said Janice Hahn, chairwoman of the LA County Board of Supervisors. Hahn was quoted by the BBC
"This fight has always been about what is best for the Bruce family, and they feel what is best for them is selling this property back to the county for nearly $20m and finally rebuilding the generational wealth they were denied for nearly a century," she added.
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In June last year, the county returned that land to the family. The city has agreed to keep leasing the land for USD 413,000 a year to continue operations of a county lifeguard training centre.
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