by Mark McDermott
The Manhattan Beach City Council Tuesday night unanimously agreed to host a celebration of the new federal holiday, Juneteenth, with a June 19 gathering at Bruce’s Beach Park and larger festivities at Polliwog Park on June 22.
Juneteenth, officially known as Juneteenth National Independence Day, celebrates the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, the freeing of enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865. It has long been an informal holiday among African Americans, and was officially made one of six federal holidays in 2021. In Manhattan Beach, its official celebration had been under consideration for the better part of a year. If any lingering doubts remained going into this week’s council meeting, they were jubilantly put to rest as the community came together in support of Juneteenth in a rare moment of unity. Once again, members of the Black Scholars Union from Mira Costa High School provided the eloquence, City staff, and a citizen-led committee provided the blueprint, and an anonymous donor pledged to provide a majority of the funding.
Councilmember Steve Napolitano, after hearing testimony that included several impassioned Mira Costa students and an unusual joint appearance at the podium by two residents who normally are polar political opposites, welcomed the moment a reprieve from “the noise and divisiveness” that has plagued the city and nation in recent years.
“I would love to bring clarity and unity to tonight,” Napolitano said. “[But] there’s no need for me to do it. It’s already been done by you all.”
A lot of the divisiveness in the community has centered around Bruce’s Beach, the park whose tragic, racist history came to greater light as the Black Lives Matter movement emerged in 2020 and, locally, the Justice for Bruce’s Beach movement coalesced. A century ago, the City utilized the power of eminent domain to take the land, forcing five Black families to leave their homes (and, in the case of the Bruces, a thriving resort business). In the four years since, much has been accomplished to redress that historical wrong, including LA County returning of the actual Bruce’s Beach parcels to family descendantsdescendents, the compiling of a comprehensive history of what occurred in the 1910s and 20s by a Council-appointed task force, and a hard-fought (and at times much-maligned) formal apology, first by Napolitano and finally from the entire Council.
What was different about what occurred Tuesday night was the palpable sense of hopefulness that pervaded council chambers, and the utter absence of discord.
The council had stopped just shy of approving an official Juneteenth celebration last month, in part to explore private fundraising to help pay for the event. At the outset of discussions, Parks and Recreation Director Mark Leyman announced that through MBX, a booster club that helps fund local schools, an anonymous donor had pledged $15,000 for this year and the next two years — $45,000 total — if the City committed to the celebration and matched those donations, either through public funds or other donations. Another concern, parking at Bruce’s Beach, was addressed, as Grandview Elementary offered use of its nearby parking lot.
At last month’s discussions, some residents had also expressed skepticism about an informal survey that showed strong support for the event because many of the results had come from Mira Costa students, who a few speakers noted are not taxpayers.
The Costa students’ impassioned testimony last month made it clear that the Council would have trouble rejecting the event. On Tuesday night, the students, all from the school’s Black Scholars Union, made rejection impossible.
“This event is not a mere appropriation of funds,” said Donnè Ward, president of the Black Scholars Union. “Rather, it is an exploration of the historical journey of African Americans, acknowledging the challenges we have overcome. It serves as a celebration of the progress that allows our people to aspire to have equal standing on the global stage fostering the potential for greatness among our people. Furthermore, hosting a Juneteenth Celebration lets the nation know that Manhattan Beach stands with the idea of unity. It conveys a message that we all stand together, regardless of our backgrounds, to celebrate freedom and equality. Let us take this step towards a more inclusive future where every resident feels seen and heard and valued, regardless of their tax status.”
“For me, living in this neighborhood as a young Black woman, it’s so important to see my culture being shared amongst others,” said Skyler Wills, another Mira Costa student. “They may not be informed on what Juneteenth even is, and also being able to hear Black voices being uplifted and highlighted is incredibly important to not only to me but to other Black students and other minority students at Costa who might feel like their voice isn’t shared enough. So I think that Juneteenth is an incredibly important holiday that should be celebrated here and deserves just as much respect as other independence holidays, like July 4.”
“Pretty much all throughout my educational experience, I’ve been the only African American girl in all of my classes,” said Raven Melvin. “It’s been hard for me to connect with people who don’t know about me or understand my culture and what makes me, me. So I feel like the Juneteenth celebration will shed light on some of the things that are so important to African American culture, like our food, our attire, our traditions, and more importantly, our history…We go to school, and we are constantly around people who don’t really know anything about us. I believe this celebration will make all of the students of Manhattan Beach more culturally educated and tolerant.”
Resident Heather Kim, who last month expressed skepticism over student input, appeared won over — not only by the students, but by fellow resident Tim Jones, who she’d struck up a conversation with in the hallway. They stood together at the podium.
“I will say jointly that we both agree that this type of a Juneteenth celebration should occur,” Kim said. “…We also agree together that the divisiveness in this community has to end. There’s so much being pitted against each other, whether it’s by race or political ideology or any of the other categories that you want to tick off.”
“Ms. Kim and I, as you might know, we agree to disagree on a lot of things,” Jones said. “But the one thing that we absolutely agree upon is that divisiveness in our community has got to stop. It’s got to stop right here. To paraphrase some of the words of Benjamin Franklin, democracy is a wonderful thing — if we can keep it.”
Janet Allen, a school psychologist who 22 years ago was the faculty founder of the Black Scholars Union at MCHS, came to the podium brimming with emotion. Some of it was pride, after watching her students speak with such poise and beauty, but Allen also told the council that this celebration at this place meant something extra to her.
“I’m very, very excited that this would start on the site of Bruce’s Beach, the site where my grandparents and great grandparents were only allowed to go to the beach,” Allen said. “As a fourth generation Los Angeles resident growing up and moving to South Bay with my family and my children, hearing stories from my grandparents and great grandparents where they were allowed to go to the beach — I would love to bring my 88-year-old88 year old father to Bruce’s Beach on June 19 to see where his parents and his grandparents were allowed to go to the beach. I would love for students across our city to learn about this wonderful event, and to celebrate with family members, church members, neighbors the beauty of this holiday…[This is] an impassioned educational plea that we expand on what our students are learning about in the world today, and in America, what we are passionate about for the future.”
Councilperson Amy Howorth, after public testimony but before any vote was taken, said she was sure that the Juneteenth event would go forward in Manhattan Beach.
“I am just so moved, and proud,” she said.
Councilperson David Lesser, who reentered the political fray last year in part with hopes to help address the city’s divisiveness, said the night’s testimony reaffirmed such hopes.
“Thank you for sharing your voices and being here tonight,” Lesser said. “This is an opportunity to celebrate our federal holiday, it’s to recognize our diversity, and it’s to show our openness as a community. These were fundamental reasons why I ran for office again, because I didn’t feel that how our city was appearing to the world reflected the community that I’ve known for the 28 years I’ve lived here.”
The council approved the Juneteenth event in a 5-0 vote. Juneteenth will occur 10 to 11 a.m. on June 19 with a simple ceremony at Bruce’s Beach, and a larger celebration, featuring professional jazz musicians, dancing, and food will occur at Polliwog Park from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on June 22. ER
