Multimillion-dollar beach property taken from Black owners in Jim Crow era is cleared to be returned

A plan to return stretch of prime Southern California beachfront real estate to the descendants of its rightful Black owners, nearly a century after the parcel was taken by the city of Manhattan Beach, is scheduled for a vote before the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

Known as Bruce's Beach, the resort had offered Black families a place to enjoy the California life and was a labor of love for owners Charles and Willa Bruce. But harassment from White neighbors and the Ku Klux Klan tore away at their dreams. The final blow came in 1924 when the city took the property through eminent domain and paid the couple a fraction of what they asked for. The city wanted the land for a park.

Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that will enable the county to return the beachfront property to their descendants. The two lots are worth approximately $75 million in total, officials confirmed to CNN eat the time. The houses directly next to the property have hefty price tags of around $7 million each.