Bronze plaque stolen from historic Bruce’s Beach in Southern California

A bronze plaque at a historic Manhattan Beach park was stolen by thieves in a string of crimes targeting valuable metals in public spaces.

The plaque, located at Bruce’s Beach Park, disappeared on Monday, Jan. 29 after being installed less than a year ago in February 2023. The large plaque is made of bronze and details the historic and cultural significance of the site for the Black community.

Thieves looking to sell the plaque for financial gain are only focused on the worth of metals such as bronze, copper and brass. 

“With the plaque being gone now, it really is adding insult to injury,” said Rebecca McCullough, a Manhattan Beach visitor. “The African-American community has suffered loss and stealing for so many centuries and this is just a real disheartening occurrence.”

Bruce’s Beach is named after a family of Black entrepreneurs who owned the first seaside resort for Black people in the 1920s.

Early city leaders, however, seized the family’s waterfront property while claiming eminent domain —  the right of a government to seize private property for public use. 

Los Angeles County historians, however, said the move was racially motivated with the “intention of bringing an end to the successful Black business and to thwart other African Americans from settling in or developing businesses in Manhattan Beach.”

“At the time that the Council voted to condemn the land, it also put new laws on the books that prohibited resort-type businesses in that area, effectively prohibiting the Bruce’s and other Black families from purchasing any additional beachfront property for a resort,” according to county officials.

A century later, the land was returned to the Bruce Family, whose descendants sold it back to L.A. County for nearly $20 million in January 2023.

The bronze plaque encased in a cement base explained the land’s rich yet painful history to visitors before thieves removed the plaque and escaped with it.

“This plaque represented so much work over so many years and it was a unifying object of all the bridges that we built,” explained Joe Franklin, Mayor of Manhattan Beach.

“I just wish that people just had respect for, not just property, but principle and history,” McCullough said. “If we can get respect in that area, I think some of these things would be left alone.”

The theft at Bruce’s Beach is now the latest in a string of similar crimes across Southern California with thieves stealing metal plaques from local cemeteries, war memorials, public statues, school campuses, city street lights, stockyards and more.

“It’s extremely disturbing that someone would do this presumably for money, for the value of the bronze, versus the message that’s on it,” said Mayor Franklin.

Franklin said he’s hoping for the plaque’s recovery as city councilmembers begin discussing the replacement of the $20,000 memorial. The public works department is working on solutions to better secure the plaque against future theft.

Anyone with information on the suspects is asked to call Manhattan Beach Detective Klosowski at 310-802-5123. Anonymous tips can be provided to L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at lacrimestoppers.org.