You wouldn’t know it today, but Manhattan Beach in California was once a destination, a playground for Black families in southern California – and there were others. Dr. Alison Rose Jefferson, researcher and native Californian tells the remarkable story of the legacy of these places in the book, Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era.

Note: This interview was recorded prior to the April 20, 2021, LA County Board of Supervisors vote to begin the process of returning the land to the Bruce family.

Highlights: 

Highlights of the interview are included for convenient listening.

  • Early Black presence in southern California (0:00)
  • Diversity and confidence (4:23)
  • Boosters – leaders of the movement (4:58)
  • The Bruce family (Willa and Charles) creates a place to play (6:05)
  • Discrimination on the beachfront (8:22)
  • Bruce’s Beach is taken away, other Black landowners (12:01)
  • Legacy of other southern California beach communities (14:35)
  • Still opportunity to see Black beach heritage (17:24)
  • Bathing Girl and Children Contest and Beauty Parade (18:42)
  • The current state of Bruce’s Beach (22:44)
  • The importance of telling the story (25:54)

Re/sources: 

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