Bruce's Beach plaque dedication postponed
As weekend storms moved into Southern California, ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for March 18
Manhattan Beach's nearly three-year journey to dedicate a new monument at Bruce's Beach Park, one with historically correct verbiage, has been delayed again — this time because of Mother Nature.
The dedication ceremony, initially planned for Saturday, has been postponed about a month because of the powerful storm that has battered Southern California this week.
The ceremony is set for 10 a.m. March 18.
The new monument, which immortalizes two Black entrepreneurs from Manhattan Beach's early days, is already in place at the park, 2600 Highland Ave., but is covered in plywood as it awaits its official unveiling.
Mayor Steve Napolitano, a member of the disbanded Bruce's Beach Task Force, who previously said the installation needed to “happen yesterday,” will cut the ribbon and give the opening remarks during the ceremony.
Three others, who all served on the history advisory board, will also speak: Kristen Long, Isla Garraway and Tyler St. Bernard.
“It is important that we remember and honor the history behind the area we now call Bruce's Beach Park,” Napolitano said in a press release earlier this month. “While we cannot change what happened nearly 100 years ago, neither should we run from it. We have taken great strides to better understand that difficult chapter in our history and embrace the lessons we can learn from it.”
The plaque at the cityowned Bruce's Beach Park isn't the only commemoration of Willa and Charles Bruce, who were Black and operated a seaside resort for African Americans during the 1920s. The Bruces didn't own property at the park, but they owned two parcels nearby to the east and directly on the shore.
Other Black families, though, did own parcels on land that became the park.
Another plaque, installed by Los Angeles County, marks the actual parcels on The Strand where the resort was located until the city used eminent domain to take away the land, as well as other properties — primarily from Black residents — for racially motivated reasons.
The city task force initially charged in 2020 with planning the park plaque redo was turned into a history advisory board that was then set to rewrite the plaque's language in 2021. But the City Council ended up taking over that job last year.
The national reckoning on systemic racism that exploded in 2020, in the wake of George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis police, became particularly local in Manhattan Beach after a Juneteenth celebration, organized by activist Kavon Ward, brought to light the history of Bruce's Beach and the surrounding area.
In a historic move, Los Angeles County returned the land to the Bruce family in June. But less than six months later, the Bruce family decided to sell the two beachfront parcels back to the county for $20 million.
Besides the plaque at Bruce's Beach Park, Manhattan Beach's Art-inPublic-Places Committee is also working on a separate art piece to honor the legacy of Willa and Charles Bruce; that project has its own timeline. The city has developed a request for proposals for the art piece.