California beachfront taken from Black couple given to heirs

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Los Angeles County officials have presented the deed to prime California oceanfront property to the heirs of a Black couple who built a beach resort for African Americans but were stripped of the land nearly a century ago. The event Wednesday marked the final step in a complex effort to address the long-ago wrong suffered by Charles and Willa Bruce, whose early 20th century resort on the shore of the now-upscale city of Manhattan Beach was known as Bruce’s Beach. Against the backdrop of waves washing ashore, the county registrar-recorder handed the documents to Anthony Bruce, a great-great-grandson of the Bruces.