The new marker honors Black entrepreneurs Willa and Charles Bruce, who ran a seaside resort for Black beachgoers in the early 20th century.
In lieu of postponing the unveiling one last time, it’s just as well, Napolitano said, to reveal the plaque during Women’s History Month given the strong, Black women who are at the center of the Bruce’s Beach story.
But the overall story of Bruce’s Beach parallels the story of racism in America in the early part of the last century, Napolitano said. But it was the advocacy of Ward, a former Manhattan Beach resident, that initially brought this history to the city, county and state’s attention today. “George and Ethel Prioleau, Milton and Anna Johnson, Elizabeth Patterson and Mary Sanders all bought and built cottages where we stand now; they were joined by the Irvings, McCaskills and Slaughters who purchased land south of 26th Street,” Long-Drew said. “It was a burgeoning Black community, until it wasn’t.”
Fellow history board member Tyler St. Bernard said that by reckoning with the story of what happened, only then the Manhattan Beach community can begin to heal from it. “The city’s new plaque affirms the historical significance of the resort that Willa Bruce envisioned,” Garraway said. “I am really grateful that the harms of past racial discrimination have been more accurately recounted in the city’s plaque. I’m grateful that we can move forward as a community with aspirations for a more inclusive Manhattan Beach literally set in stone.”
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