The City of Santa Monica has formally begun the process to return land once owned by a Black entrepreneur, or at least compensate the family for the loss of their property.
Dueling discussion items were on the agenda last week to study the situation around the land where the Viceroy Hotel now sits and after some brief discussion on the details of the two proposals, Council eventually combined both measures into a single directive to understand what happened years ago when the city took the land from Silas White and what can be done about it today.
White originally purchased the land at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Pico Boulevard in 1957 with hopes of turning the space into the Ebony Beach Club, a place where the local Black community could come together during a time when such establishments were sparse, to say the least. However, just one year later, the City of Santa Monica claimed the property through a process called eminent domain and within a few years, demolished the building. Silas White himself died four years later.
City Manager David White and City Attorney Doug Sloan will report back to Council in 90 days with:
1. Historical records documenting Silas White’s interest in the Ebony Beach Club Property including chain of title and a record of any lease-to-purchase agreements that may exist.
2. Contemporaneous public writings, court documents and other evidence that indicates the City of Santa Monica exercised racial animus in its decision to seize said property.
3. Recommendations that include steps the City of Santa Monica should take to repair past harm that the City perpetuated against Silas White and his descendants.
Recommendations could include options for financial compensation for the closest living descendant(s) of Silas White inclusive of wealth lost since the property was seized by the City of Santa Monica and an outline of steps that may be required to transfer the parcel of land referred to as Ebony Beach Club.
Councilwoman Caroline Torosis, very much the instigator of this item, praised the unity on display.
“I’m so really delighted that we had such a showing of solidarity here today … I want to thank the White family for speaking up and speaking out, especially when it’s the hard thing … And I’m just grateful that you are here, I think I’m also really grateful to all of our councilmembers who want to collectively do the right thing by the City of Santa Monica,” she said.
Councilman Jesse Zwick also praised the work of community members who attended the meeting in support of the work.
“Notwithstanding a good portion of the last hour, I just want to say that this has been a really inspiring night,” he said. “And I say that not because of any of us up here, but because of all of you out there who came to speak. Many of you who are still here at nearly midnight to see this through. We have clearly many just caring and deeply eloquent residents in our city and in the larger community of Los Angeles. And it makes me very proud to live here and serve you.”
Two groups of Councilmembers had asked for versions of the discussion. Councilmembers Caroline Torosis, Gleam Davis and Jessie Zwick proposed a more lengthy item while Councilmembers Lana Negrete, Christine Parra and Oscar de la Torre had a more succinct version.
State rules prohibit more than three councilmembers from working on an item at a time hence the two proposals featuring differing groups. Mayor Phil Brock said he supported both ideas, but wasn’t part of either group due to the four-person limit.
Brock said he had only recently come to understand the racial context of the city’s history.
“And I started finding more and more things about redlining, about all the terrible things we had done that I thought were only done in the south. And I learned that everything I learned in school about LA about Santa Monica, about my hometown, was wrong,” he said. “That the adults, the grandparents, parents, in this city before I was around, were racist as hell. And they didn’t treat people equally. They didn’t treat people with care. It was about the color of your skin and, as I think Martin Luther King said, instead of the content of your character. That’s a horrible thing.”
Council voted unanimously to support the merged motions and staff will return with the results of their research in the coming months.