From right to left, Mrs. Willa Bruce, and her son, Harvey Bruce with his wife, Meda under a pop-up wooden tent structure that served as the early place of business for what became Bruce’s Lodge in Manhattan Beach, California, ca. 1912-1920. Photo: Photograph from the California African American Museum Collection featured in Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era, 2020 by Alison Rose Jefferson.
From left to right, Mrs. Willa Bruce, with her daughter-in-law Meda and her sister enjoying the sunshine at the seashore near Bruce’s Lodge in Manhattan Beach, California, ca. 1920s. California African American Museum.Photo: Photograph from the California African American Museum Collection featured in Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era, 2020 by Alison Rose Jefferson.
St. Paul’s Baptist Church excursion to Bruce’s Beach advertisement, California Eagle newspaper, May 27, 1922. The ad mentions nothing about Manhattan Beach. If you were in the known in the Afro Angeleno community in this era, you were aware of the site’s geographic location. Note activities are mentioned for adults and families. One of the oldest African American newspapers in the West and based in Los Angeles, the Eagle covered news that its primarily African American readership wanted and needed to know.Photo: Illustration from the Archive.org Collection featured in Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era, 2020 by Alison Rose Jefferson.
Gov. Gavin Newsom shakes the hand of Anthony Bruce, the great-great-great-grandson of Charles and Willa Bruce, owners of Bruce's Beach.Photo: Corbin Carson, KFI News
Chief Duane Shepard (with medallion – “Family Historian” and distant cousin to Bruce’s. Other Bruce family members, Anthony Bruce (holding up peace sign) Anthony's fiancé and Corbin Carson.Photo: Corbin Carson, KFI News
Photo: Anthony Bruce (Used with permission)
Dr. Alison Rose JeffersonPhoto: Alison Rose Jefferson (Used with permision)
Photo: Kavon Ward (Used with permission)
Chief Duane 'Yellow Feather" Shepard, Sr.Photo: Chief Duane ‘Yellow Feather’ Shepard, Sr.. (Used with permission)
Dolores BarclayPhoto: Dolores Barclay (Used with permission)
Mitch Ward, Mayor (ret.) Manhattan BeachPhoto: Mitch Ward (Used with permission)
Photo: Allison Hales (Used with permission)
Manhattan Beach Councilmember Suzanne HadleyPhoto: https://www.manhattanbeach.gov/government/city-council
L.A. County Supervisor Janice HahnPhoto: https://lacounty.gov/government/supervisors/janice-hahn/
California Senator Steve BradfordPhoto: https://sd35.senate.ca.gov/biography