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to one day call that land home again.

Last year she reached out to Where Is My Land, an organization that helps Black families across the country regain land taken through eminent domain, fraudulent wills, or other means.

Nearly 500 families have contacted Where Is My Land since the organization launched last summer, said founder Kavon Ward, an activist and poet in Los Angeles.

Hundreds sought help

Demand for the group’s services has been “overwhelming,” she said, adding she is encouraged so many have contacted her.

“I’m happy that there’s hope where there wasn’t,” she said, adding Where Is My Land must be strategic about moving cases forward. “I need there to be realistic expectations.”

For now, Ward said, the group’s three staff members are “taking it slow . . . we can’t go as fast as people are expecting us to unless they want to donate millions of dollars.”

The for-profit organization says it provides advocacy, research and media consulting and charges between $35 a session to $3,333 for the full package of services.

The hundreds seeking Where Is My Land’s help span the United States, Ward said, with most requests coming from the South and the East Coast. There are 40 active cases, including seven in California, Ward said.

“All of (the cases) are racially motivated,” Ward said, “Eminent domain was used in a lot of them, but also just racist white people running people off the land . . . There’s fraud and oil companies taking land and getting away with it. We have courts involved with the theft of it . . . and municipalities and states not doing anything about it, despite seeing that the families have proven evidence that the land belongs to them.”

In California, Where is My Land is working with seven families who lost property to municipalities in Santa Monica, Hayward, Richmond, Coloma, Palm Springs, Canyon and Napa, Ward said. The team is gathering documents and testimony and working with law firms, though Ward wouldn’t be specific about their strategy, saying the organization faces steep opposition.

“I am grateful that more and more people are educating themselves and are ready to make amends,” she said. “But at the same time, there are just as many people who are not and who are looking at this attempt to get land back as a huge threat and will do whatever they can to stop the movement.”

Bruce’s Beach

Where is My Land grew out of a local effort to help a Black family in Manhattan Beach regain ownership of a small park called Bruce’s Beach in Los Angeles County.

In the early 1900s, Bruce’s Beach was a haven for Black families who wanted to swim in the Pacific Ocean but were blocked from most other beaches and pools in the county. Originally owned by Willa and Charles Bruce, the beach was a resort with a restaurant and dance hall.

The city of Manhattan Beach seized the property in 1927, claiming it for a public park. But the spot remained undeveloped for decades. The city deeded it to the state, which transferred it to the county, which put a lifeguard station on it.

Now surrounding the park are multi-million dollar luxury homes with ocean views.

“Can you imagine what that land would be worth?” Ward said. “Can you imagine how wealthy that family could have been?”

Before 2020, Ward said, she barely knew the history of Bruce’s Beach. After the national protests in response to the police murder of George Floyd, she held a Juneteenth picnic at Bruce’s Beach where two members of the Bruce family attended.

“I got so upset,” said Ward, 41. “I live in this city where Black people were essentially co-founders and I had no idea.”

Ward began advocating for the return of the land to the Bruces. She spent hours testifying at city council meetings and before the California Coastal Commission about the unjust history of eminent domain, while facing pushback from residents, including some who called the Bruces opportunists and claimed there was no systemic racism in Manhattan Beach.

Racial motivations

Separately state Sen. Steven Bradford – a Democrat from San Pedro who sits on the state’s reparations task force – had begun drafting Senate Bill 796, which would allow the county to return the land to the Bruces.

Legislators unanimously passed the bill, and in September 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed it. L.A. County, while publicly admitting the original land grab was motivated by racial prejudice, deeded the land back to the Bruce family in what many said was a rare case of a government reversing a multimillion-dollar eminent domain action.

“It is well documented that this move was a racially motivated attempt to drive out the successful Black business and its patrons,” the Board of Supervisors’ motion reads.

Recently the county signed an agreement with Bruce descendants to continue leasing the property for $413,000 a year for two years. Afterward the county could buy it from the family for a price “not to exceed” $20 million.

The fight to return the beach met with some legal resistance. Joseph Ryan, a Palos Verdes resident and retired attorney, filed a lawsuit arguing that the land transfer would constitute “a gift” of public funds and therefore is unconstitutional. The Los Angeles Superior Court rejected Ryan’s suit last April, finding the return of land is not a gift.

In an email to CalMatters, he disputed the history of the eminent domain seizure, and referred to his prior statements in which he called the story of injustice a “myth.”

Lauren Justice/Calmatters Kavon Ward, CEO and Founder of Where is My Land, at home in Marina Del Ray, Nov. 17.

Making it right

Ward said the property’s return to the Bruces is a sign of progress.

“It’s the first time in this frickin’ country, in this world, that Black people are treated with enough respect for this country to say, ‘You know, what we did, this, it was wrong. We’re going to do what we can to make it right,’” Ward said.

Ward’s advocacy, along with Bradford’s first-ofits-kind legislation, put the issue of Black land dispossession on a national stage. Ward said the campaign was a moment of “perfect alignment” of political will among people in local, state and national political spheres.

“There’s no one-sizefits-all model for any of it,” Ward said. “A lot of it is case-by-case strategy.”

Today her organization pushes for property transfers either legislatively or through the courts, along with drumming up public support.

Families submit claims to the organization’s website and the team’s lead researcher, Kamala Miller, reviews them. A strong case, Miller said, is one with robust documentation of ownership by a family – such as property deeds or demolition notices – or historical evidence of eminent domain in local newspapers or city archives.

Miller, who is a licensed attorney in Washington D.C., said cases like the Bruces’ and the Moores’ – involving land seized for public use and which remains unused – have better shots at transfers than cases where private parties seize land.

“Those are more likely to get a listening ear” than when somebody lives on the property, Miller said.

Bradford agreed, adding that since the passage of SB 796, he has spoken with legislators from across the country hoping for a roadmap for future land transfers involving eminent domain.

“SB 796 is a clear example of what can be done when there’s a will by government entities – whether it’s local, state, or federal – to return land that is currently being controlled by government entities,” Bradford said.

A debt owed

He added that a goal for California’s reparations taskforce is to compile a database of properties taken from Black families. The task force, in general, is examining how Black people have been impacted by systemic racism and how the state can respond through reparations.

Bradford makes a distinction between reparations and returning stolen land.

“I see reparations as that which was owed and that which was promised,” Bradford said, “so to return that which was stolen is not necessarily reparations. But it’s an example of what we can do in trying to correct some of the historical wrongs, as it relates to the denial and stealing of property that belonged to Black folks.”

Many properties taken from Black families are now owned or occupied by private people or entities, and there are fewer ways to pursue their return, advocates said.

Constance White, who grew up in Santa Monica, said she has asked Where is My Land to help, because the property her family once owned, though publicly owned, is now the site of the Viceroy Santa Monica hotel, part of a multi-billion dollar hotel group.

Back in 1957 her father, Silas White, was weeks away from opening the Ebony Beach Club, a club for Black people. Signs were on the building – and Nat King Cole was to be one of the first members – when the city of Santa Monica seized the property under the guise of building a parking lot for the civic center, she said.

Soon after his business plans were destroyed, Silas White fell ill. He died in 1962.

The city didn’t build the civic center parking lot; it allowed a hotel to be built there instead. According to the L.A. County Assessor, the city of Santa Monica still owns the land, valued at $1.5 million.

Constance White said the city owes her family a debt.

“I want a real great awareness, an apology from the city of Santa Monica,” said White, who is 88. “And since I can’t get the land back, I would think there’s something financial that they would be willing to do.”

At a November city council meeting, Santa Monica Mayor Sue Himmelrich and the council issued a formal apology to the African American community, acknowledging the city’s “deed restrictions, prohibitive zoning, and racist realtor practices,” including the use of eminent domain.

The council said it is committed to “ferreting out and overturning systemically racist policies to ensure that the pain caused by several decades of racial injustice and discrimination against African Americans and other people of color is mitigated to the extent possible.”

City officials were not available to comment specifically on White’s case.

George Fatheree, an LA attorney who represented the Bruce family, said Black people won’t be able to litigate themselves out of historical real estate discrimination. Changes in government policies will be necessary.

“It’s a function of decades, if not centuries, of racially discriminatory acts and policies and laws. The idea that the way to address it through one-byone litigation is somewhat myopic,” he said.

In Moore’s case, the city of Richmond paid her $27,000 in 1993 for the house on Enterprise Avenue. The city also helped relocate Moore’s mother to a senior home and her brother to an affordable housing unit.

But that wasn’t enough to remedy the incalculable loss, Moore said; soon after, depression blanketed her mother’s already declining health.

Two decades after the house was demolished, the 6,032-square-foot plot is an empty field of weeds. The city considers it surplus and has put it up for sale. The county assessor valued it at $13,540 in January.

“The real question is whether the previous owner was paid a fair price when the parcel was obtained through eminent domain,” said Tom Butt, Richmond’s current mayor, in an email to CalMatters.

Moore said she and her adult daughter are ready to fight for it. They dream of opening a community garden or a senior center on their family’s plot.

“It brings back so many memories – and they’re fading because the house is not there,” Moore said. “We’re not there. We’re not able to be in our home . . . That was our whole livelihood. When they took the foundation, everything started crumbling.”

Custody

From Page One

ties would work “arm in arm” with their Scottish counterparts.

“Let there be no mistake, no amount of time or distance will stop the U.S. and our Scottish partners from pursuing justice in this case,” Barr said.

Megrahi was released from prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds while terminally ill with cancer, and died in Libya in 2012. In January 2021, his family lost an appeal against his conviction at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Lawyers of Megrahi’s family said the decision to move Mas’ud into U.S. custody may have implications on the miscarriage of justice appeal rejected against the late client.

Lawyer Aamer Anwar said Mas’ud’s confession was extracted by a Libyan law enforcement agent in 2012 while he was in prison in the North African nation – which would not be legally recognized in Scotland or the U.S.

Adding that Mas’ud’s confession could “fundamentally undermine” Megrahi’s case, Anwar said in a statement: “We find it astonishing that the U.S. now claims that Mas’ud was given $500 by Megrahi to buy clothes to fill the suitcase, but Megrahi then also bought the clothes too.

“We are now trying to imagine the ridiculous situation that Mas’ud will say ‘I bought the clothes’ (presumably from Marys House, Malta) which would fundamentally undermine Megrahi’s case.

“What will the Scottish Crown Office say ‘No you didn’t’ especially as it played a key role in their case against Al-Megrahi.”

The statement added: “For the Megrahi family, this is just another piece in the jigsaw of monumental lies, built on the back of the Libyan people, the victims of Lockerbie and the incarceration of an innocent man Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi.”

The U.S. Department of Justice said: “The United States has taken custody of alleged Pan Am flight 103 bombmaker Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi.

“He is expected to make his initial appearance in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Additional details, including information regarding public access to the initial appearance, will be forthcoming.”

Hulton Archive/Getty Images/TNS file In this photo from Jan. 31, 2001, the “shatter zone” portion of the reconstructed fuselage of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, is on display in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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Projects

From Page One

includes what staff considers to be critical overall and chip seal projects, which they say is why the county roads are among the best in the Bay Area. Three roads – parts of Kildeer, Lambie and Scally – are scheduled for overlay work when funding is available, while 21 roads will get the chip seal maintenance. The funded level is $968,000.

Maintenance work is a key part of each year’s workplan.

The 2024-25 budget is $37.458 million; the 2025-26 budget is $49.732 million; the 2026-27 budget is $23.796 million; and the 2027-28 budget is $10.076 million.

Supervisor Mitch Mashburn wanted to know when Highway 113 is going to be addressed, calling it the “worst highway” in the county. He was told the state Department of Transportation has pushed the project back to 2029.

“At least with 113 you have a date, with (Highway) 37, we are looking out decades,” Supervisor Erin Hannigan said.

The work around the Rockville parks was also a highlighted priority for some of the supervisors. There is $650,000 that goes to the crossing project this year.

Updating equipment and corporations yards also are needs, the board was told.