Since the recent reckoning with racism in America, sparked by the murder of George Floyd, I’ve felt I should write about it – try to make sense of it somehow. Yet despite reading, listening and thinking about racism (past and present) the topic seemed too large. Where would I even begin?

This Juneteeth (June 19th), the day marking the end of chattel slavery in the United States, seems like a good day to just get started with something – so here is my attempt. As I enjoy learning about and sharing California history, I will begin to weave in some of the less flattering bits of California history dealing with racism.

We must tell the whole story.

I will keep an index of these posts on the Racism in California page.

The first example is Bruce’s Beach – a beach resort made by and for Black people which was shut down by the city of Manhattan Beach in 1924.