Update: As of February 1, Manhattan Beach Police say that it appears that this crime was related to multiple bronze thefts in the South Bay area.
The bronze plaque at Bruce’s Beach Park describing the history of the site
was reported stolen on Monday.
Installed in February last year, the stolen
plaque held significant historical and cultural value both in Manhattan Beach and as a part of Black history in Southern California.
The theft marked a devastating blow to the city, to those who had spent thousands
of hours researching and developing the plaque language, and to those
who saw it as an important and emotional pilgrimage site.
"We are deeply troubled by the theft of the Bruce’s Beach Plaque. We ask the public’s help in finding the perpetrators of this crime," Mayor Joe Franklin told MB News. "While we hope for its recovery, Council will be discussing plans for its replacement."
Upon discovery of the stolen plaque, the Manhattan Beach Police
Department opened an investigation to identify, locate, and
apprehend those responsible.
(The plaque in its undisturbed form)
The plaque marked the outgrowth of an extensive period of reflection on the history of Bruce's Beach.
In 2020, the city formed a task force to research the history of the city’s racially
motivated eminent domain action to dispossess Willa and Charles Bruce
and others of their property in the 1920s. The task force’s work
resulted in the adoption of a formal history report on Bruce’s Beach. The
City Council took action to draft language that was placed on the bronze
plaque and installed at Bruce’s Beach Park.
The Bruce's Beach Park plaque was formally unveiled in March 2023. (See the full text of the wording on the plaque here.)
The police department is urging anyone with information regarding the
theft to contact Detective Sergeant Klosowski at (310) 802-5123.
Anyone who wants to provide information anonymously may call the Los Angeles Regional Crime Stoppers 24/7
Call Center using a toll free number 1-800-222-TIPS (8477); phone lines
are encrypted and calls are not recorded.
It remains unclear whether this theft targeted the Bruce's Beach plaque specifically, or whether it was part of a recent rash in thefts of bronze from memorials in the greater Los Angeles area.
Bruce's Beach Background and Coverage
Since 2020, the city of Manhattan Beach has engaged in an emotional debate over how -
or how much - to recognize Willa and Charles Bruce, pioneering Black
business owners who created a thriving resort for Black beach-goers in
Manhattan Beach in the 1920s.
(Historical
images of Charles and Willa Bruce, of beachgoers at Bruce's Beach
resort, and of the former Bruce's Beach resort site. Photos via Bruce's
Beach Task Force subcommittee.)
By
the mid-1920s, with pressure from community members who did not
want Black beachgoers in town, Manhattan Beach's Board of Trustees (a
precursor to the modern city council) claimed the land under eminent domain,
condemning the lots and displacing the Bruce family as well as other
families who had
settled in the area. (Of the 30 lots condemned, five were owned by five
Black families and had been developed with cottages, homes, or, in the
Bruces’ case, a two-story building for their business; and the remaining
25 lots were owned by White property owners that had no structures
built upon them and were uninhabited.)
The land was acquired by the state of California in
1948, and was transferred to L.A. County in 1995. The beachfront property the Bruce family once owned is now the site of the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Training Headquarters.
The
effort led by Los Angeles County leaders to return the land to the
Bruce family reached a significant milestone in September 2021 when
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 796, a bill permitting the return of the county-owned beachfront property to the Bruce family, into law.
L.A. County officials handed over the deed to the property
to the descendants of the Bruce family in July 2022. The county also
created a plaque on the Strand that details the history of the
beachfront property. Nevertheless, the Bruce family in 2023 sold the property back to L.A. County for $20 million.
Meanwhile,
within Manhattan Beach, it was not until 2006 that the city publicly
acknowledged this chapter of its history by naming the area east of the
beachfront property Bruce's Beach Park and establishing a plaque in that
(park) location. In the summer of 2020, a movement began growing for the city
to
take further action to recognize the Bruces.
Despite creating a
Bruce's Beach Task Force and
adopting a history report created
by the task force, the Manhattan Beach City Council struggled for
nearly a year with finding compromise on the wording, location, and
style for a new marker honoring Bruce's Beach Park and the Bruce family.
The City Council approved the
plaque language on March 10, 2022 and the
plaque design on April 19, 2022. It has since approved $350,000 for a sculptural art project to accompany the plaque at Bruce's Beach Park.
Also in March 2022, the City Council reaffirmed its policy
disallowing special event permits at Bruce's Beach Park, going against a
recommendation of the city's Parks and Rec Commission. Councilmembers
voted 4-1 to uphold the current special events policy that excludes
Bruce's Beach Park as well as Larsson Parkette and 8th Street Parkette from
the permitting process.
Although a "
Juneteenth" celebration in 2021 had brought large crowds to Bruce's Beach, Juneteenth 2022 was a
relatively quiet day at Bruce's Beach Park, with just a scattering of families enjoying picnics and with city-contracted security staff on hand. The city has planned the first of two
Juneteenth celebrations in 2024 to take place at Bruce's Beach Park.
(The plaque in its undisturbed form)