As the summer sun
in Los Angeles makes
its very intense and
vibrant entrance this
June, it is interesting to
reflect on things before
and things now.
Not many Black millennials
know of or ever
heard of the Inkwell in Santa Monica, or Bruce’s
Beach in Manhattan Beach. Time was, those were
virtually the only areas of the Los Angeles-based
coast in which Blacks were allowed to regularly
hang out and party.
A lot of the racial segregation in early L.A. was
informal rather than legalized, although there was
certainly enough of the latter to go around. By
1863, California had banned the practice of
excluding Blacks from testifying in court (regardless
to the then still-standing 1857 Supreme Court
case, Dred Scott v. Sanford), and by 1893, the state
had passed a general anti-racial discrimination
law, and a school desegregation law. But that was
all de jure. Everyday life was de facto, and as the
residential population of Southern California grew,
especially near the beaches, Los Angeles and its
surrounding communities were depicted as a
mecca for Whites-only.
In 1912, Charles and Willa Bruce bought four
adjoining parcels of land in the newly established
township of Manhattan Beach. They then built the
first beach resort exclusively for Black and non-
White people in Southern California. There, Black
folk could play in the surf and sand comfortably,
they could stay in a beach-front hotel, they could
shop and dine out. They could refresh themselves
in the Pacific Coast version of the American
dream.
However, in the 1920’s, the Manhattan Beach
area attracted a number of KKK affiliates, and
racial harassment in the area became the norm.
Eventually, the city government of Manhattan
Beach used eminent domain and zoning laws to
seize the Bruce’s property and to close down all of
the ancillary businesses. Three years later, the city
tried to sell the property to a private developer, but
the area NAACP got wind of it and organized a
large public protest, including a swim-in action,
and the city backed down.
The area was renamed City Park, then Beach
Front Park, then Bayview Park, and in 1974,
Parque Culiacan, as the city government could not
decide what to do with the land.
In July 2006, some 82-years after seizing the
property from the Bruce family, the Manhattan
Beach city government finally voted 3-2 to rename
the 3-acre beach front property as Bruce’s Beach,
and there was a large, festive commemoration ceremony
for the restoration in March 2007. The
property, and a relatively big sign identifying it, is
now located off Highland Avenue between 26th
and 27th streets, and is Manhattan Beach’s oldest
city park. It is a nice, pleasant visit.
During the 1920’s, a small group of Black communities
grew up in Santa Monica and Venice,
mainly centered around African American churches,
especially the Phillips Chapel C.M.E., and later
the Calvary Baptist Church. Near Phillips, at the
end of Pico Boulevard, lay an ample part of the
beach. African American church members began
regularly treating themselves to those waters in the
afternoons after church service, until the area
picked up the name, the Inkwell. Though the nickname
was meant to be pejorative, it stuck and was
transformed into a popular name. Around that
area grew a group of Black businesses, such as the
La Bonita Bathhouse and Thurman’s Rest-A-While
Apartments. The Dew Drop Inn and Café became
a favorite rest-stop for black beach goers, and so
did the Arkansas Traveler Inn, with its famous
southern fried chicken and bar-be-que. Because it
was so close to a community church, the Inkwell
patrons were not harassed as often and as violently
as Black beachgoers were at Bruce’s Beach.
However, when several Black attorneys and
business men organized the Ocean Frontage
Investment Group to acquire expanded properties
to build a beach resort area with hotels, bath houses
and dance halls, the Santa Monica city government
utilized zoning laws and restrictive covenants
to block their efforts. There was widespread White
fear of too many Blacks coming into the area.
Regardless, the Inkwell beach lasted well into the
1960’s, becoming a major attraction to Black
American migration to Los Angeles and Southern
California.
In 2005, the City of Santa Monica commemorated
Phillips Chapel, and in 2008, it held a large
commemoration of the Inkwell, where there is still
a large sign at Bay Street and Oceanfront Walk.
Ah, the good ole days.
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director
of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical
Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based
organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is
the stepparent organization for the California Black Think
Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth
Friday.
DISCLAIMER: The beliefs and viewpoints expressed in opinion pieces, letters
to the editor, by columnists and/or contributing writers are not necessarily
those of OurWeekly.
