by Bill Beverly
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? — Matthew 7:3-5
I lived for many years at 27th Street and Highland Avenue, across from what was known as Bayview Terrace, then Parque Culiacan, and now Bruce’s Beach. We watched hundreds of sunsets from park benches and studied the surf from the parking lot behind the County Lifeguard Headquarters. The community has been generally aware of the Bruce’s Beach matter since Robert Brigham’s thesis on the subject, though I would say not fully informed. Whether the Bruce family is entitled to greater compensation than they were awarded by the court in 1927 is beyond my ability to calculate. But somebody needs to take into account the funds that were paid and the present value of those funds today, as well as the economic realities of the Great Depression, World War II, and the previously referenced actions of the city in securing and dedicating two miles of beach for open space/public use.
My interest today is a little broader than just the Manhattan Beach story, because the Bruce’s Beach affair is and was not an isolated incident, even in Los Angeles. Though many if not most are familiar with the Bruce’s Beach story, “few would know and known would care” (to quote Wordsworth) of a similar event in our South Bay history, but on a much larger scale.
The entire land area that now comprises Alondra Park and El Camino college was once a Black owned residential housing development, of over 300 acres, organized by Dr. Wilbur C. Gordon in 1925 as “a subdivision for Black middle and upper class.” You can read about this “Bound for Freedom, Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America,” written by Douglas Flamming (University of California Press, 2005). That development project was also condemned by the County of Los Angeles for public purposes; not because of the need for the public facilities at the time, but because a powerful lawyer and his friends who worked downtown and lived in Palos Verdes did not feel comfortable with such a large minority community in the middle of their path home.
According to the book, “a group of very wealthy white people who owned lavish homes and sprawling ranches south of Gordon Manor quickly moved to stop the development” because “they did not want Negroes that close.” Flamming writes that “this elite group included the influential attorney Henry O’Melveny and the renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.” Perhaps another explanation for this discriminatory and retaliatory treatment of Dr. Gordon was that he was an important witness in the trial of several white policemen who were accused of beating a Black man who had attempted to use the beach in Santa Monica during one of the beach protests.
What is fascinating at this point is the sudden interest by politicians in capitalizing on the Manhattan Beach issue. I had been attempting to obtain assistance from Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office for over a year to provide information and support for something I have been calling “The Gordon Manor Project.” This is a program I had hoped to introduce at El Camino College as a part of a self awareness and community education program while I was still on the Board of Trustees. Unfortunately, I was shuffled from one person to another in the Supervisor’s office for over a year, with months going by without any return calls.
Even allowing for the pandemic, the interest has been low and the response poor. So why suddenly the concern about a Manhattan Beach issue that was decided by the courts almost 100 years ago? Supervisor Hahn, if she is serious about equity, diversity, inclusion and social justice as so many say that they are, why not make a difference by helping me to implement this important project at El Camino? Why not address the wrongs perpetrated by the government agency over which you have actual responsibility?
I have also attempted to contact representatives of the namesake law firm to enlist their support, to no avail. I don’t want more money for the victims, but I do want to educate the community to some of our not so proud history, so we might come to know ourselves and our community better and begin to make real change. o will the County Board of Supervisors help me now that the spotlight is on the issues, or will they continue to deflect, and direct the attention to Manhattan Beach and away from themselves?
As Flamming notes in his book, “Ultimately the county condemned the land” and then “gave Gordon Manor a new name — Alondra Park, which today is the site of a public golf course and El Camino College.” Why doesn’t the County start by giving the land its name back, as Manhattan Beach did many years ago by renaming the park Bruce’s Beach. They could rename Alondra Park “Gordon Manor Park,” or at least “Gordon Manor Golf Course.” That would be an appropriate first step.
Why doesn’t the County of Los Angeles also join the El Camino College Foundation in funding a program to educate the community and commemorate the legacy of the pioneers of Black Los Angeles? I can not speak for the college any longer. I am no longer on the Board of Trustees. But I can invite others to join me in writing checks to the El Camino College Foundation and directing them to be used for the Gordon Manor Project. ER
