Manhattan Beach is worth approximately $75 million.
The family of two Black California entrepreneurs, Charles and Willa Bruce, will reclaim ownership of the $75 million dollar Manhattan Beach property after institutional racism and harassment by the Ku Klux Klan forced their relatives to sell the land for a small fee.
The family-owned several luxurious beachfront properties in North America, nearly a century ago, including the Manhattan Beach property in the 1920s, the Black Information Network writes. But due to racial segregation, harassment from white neighbors, and the KKK, the city took the property away through eminent domain in 1924. Now, Los Angeles County is closing in on a deal to return the land to the Bruce family.
“The Bruces had their California dream stolen from them,” Janice Hahn, the Los Angeles County supervisor, told the news outlet. “Generations of their descendants…almost certainly would have been millionaires if they had been able to keep their property and their successful business.
According to Los Angeles County officials, the deal would return the Manhattan Beachfront property to the family after it was purchased for $1,225. The area is now worth approximately $75 million.
The city’s current population is less than 1 percent, Black, CNN reports.
A bill is scheduled to be introduced to state legislators that would allow the county to transfer the land to the Bruce family. Governor Gavin Newsom is expected to sign the bill into law without much pushback from state lawmakers in a transfer process that is expected to end by the end of 2021, according to CNN.
