Black California Dreamin’: Claiming Space at America’s Leisure Frontier. California African American Museum

Abstract

Review| November 01 2023 Black California Dreamin’: Claiming Space at America’s Leisure Frontier. California African American Museum Black California Dreamin’: Claiming Space at America’s Leisure Frontier, California African American Museum, Los Angeles. Alison Rose Jefferson, curator. August 4, 2023–March 31, 2024. Benjamin Cawthra Benjamin Cawthra California State University, Fullerton Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar The Public Historian (2023) 45 (4): 106–111. https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2023.45.4.106 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Benjamin Cawthra; Black California Dreamin’: Claiming Space at America’s Leisure Frontier. California African American Museum. The Public Historian 1 November 2023; 45 (4): 106–111. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/tph.2023.45.4.106 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentThe Public Historian Search The recent reparations legislation and public discussion concerning the fate of Bruce’s Beach in Manhattan Beach, California, makes Black California Dreamin’, an exhibition at the California African American Museum, relevant to the political and cultural moment. Bruce’s Beach, a leisure site developed by an African American family in 1912 but confiscated by the city in 1924, was returned to the family’s descendants in 2022 as part of a tentative legislative move toward restitution for racial discrimination in California. The state bought the property from the family in 2023, but the “discovery” of Bruce’s Beach is part of a larger project of cultural archaeology revealing hidden histories of African American space-claiming on “America’s Leisure Frontier.” Throughout the exhibition, visitors learn of Black leisure spaces that vary considerably in type—beaches, a country club, a dude ranch. The fates of these have too much in common. In story after story, place after place,... You do not currently have access to this content.