In 1912, Willa Bruce bought land at this site to create a place where Black Angelenos could visit the ocean during beach segregation, and on June 17, 1912, she and her husband Charles opened a portable cottage offering refreshments, bathing suits, and changing areas to the public. Their resort grew in popularity, drawing hundreds and sometimes thousands of Black visitors, and by the summer of 1916 they had replaced the cottage with a two-story building with changing rooms, a dance hall, and a restaurant. Other Black families then bought nearby land and built cottages and vacation homes, forming a summer community. From the beginning, however, the Bruces and their guests faced harassment from some White neighbors, including trespassing warnings and barriers to beach access, while some White residents denounced the growing Black presence and feared for property values. In 1924, the city's Board of Trustees moved to acquire the Bruces' land and that of four other Black families for a public park, and after court proceedings the city prevailed, forcing the owners to give up their properties for court-approved settlements. Four of the five Black families stayed elsewhere in Manhattan Beach, but the Bruces left after the legal fight and rising racial tensions. After the resort closed, James and Lula Slaughter opened a boarding house for the Black community nearby, while the city leased the beach to Oscar Bessonette, who posted no trespassing signs that officials selectively enforced against Black beachgoers. Tensions intensified after the arrest of UCLA student Elizabeth Catley, and on July 17, 1927, the Los Angeles NAACP led by Dr. Henry Claude Hudson staged its first peaceful protest there with a swim-in. Although protesters were initially convicted, the decision was overturned on appeal after testimony showed the restrictions were intended to keep Black people off the beach, and the city canceled the lease. Even so, violence against Black residents increased, including an alleged attack on the Slaughter residence in October 1927, and by 1928 reports said the situation had grown to the proportions of a race war, though no formal indictments followed. In 2006, the condemned area was officially named Bruce's Beach and dedicated in 2007, and in 2021 the LA County Board of Supervisors began the process of returning the land to the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce.
