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Santa Monica Reckons with its Dark Past
How Black families were displaced by the 10 Freeway, Urban Renewal, and redlining?
Wow!! Manhattan Beach finally stepped up to the plate and gave Bruce’s Beach, which was taken from the Bruces, an African American couple, back to their descendants. It was a lengthy process but it finally happened last year due to the effort of the grassroot organizations and some city officials.
More good news is on the horizon. Santa Monica decided to make amends to its racist past, by offering affordable housing to families and their descendants who were displaced by the 10 Freeway.
In my personal opinion, affordable housing is a plus but there should be more as this displacement caused anguish, hardship, economic devastation incurred by families displaced up until this very day. Many were never able to replenish their lives.
According to some descendants, the very same persons who were displaced, one was the first Black baby born, Vernon Brunson, there more than a century ago. He became an architect and designed Santa Monica’s beachfront buildings and apartments. Also, he owned a duplex and the displacement was its inevitable end due to the 10 Freeway. Roughly, along with Brunson, 600 other predominately Black families lost their homes.
