In 1957, Black entrepreneur Silas White saw an opportunity for his family and community and acquired the old Elks Club building, located at 1811 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. He planned to call it the "Ebony Beach Club" and hoped it would be come "one of the best establishments in America for lodging and comfort of my people." He planned to include an "exquisite front-entrance bar" and a jazz stage for entertainment at his beach club, and host exclusive golf tournaments, talent shows, and fishing trips. Places for Black refuge, free from racial discrimination, like the Ebony Beach Club, were also an opportunity to create and sustain economic growth through property ownership.
After Silas acquired the property on Ocean Avenue the anticipation of Ebony Beach Club drew the attention and interest of Black artists like Nat King Cole. Ebony Beach Club would have been an escape from segregation and Santa Monica's anti-Blackness. But within a year the city of Santa Monica denied and stole Silas White's dream of an exclusive, Black beach club by using racist policies like eminent domain to seize his land and block Black joy, leisure, and economic opportunity.
Urban renewal or "urban removal" policies intensified racial segregation during the 1960s. While the government claims the policies are aimed to rehabilitate areas considered "blighted," the policies have been used to displace Black communities and divide neighborhoods along race and class lines. Eminent domain, the government's self-appointed power to acquire private property with the intention to build projects for public use, is frequently used to seize Black-owned property and disconnect communal ties.
The White Family is owed full restitution for the unjust seizure of their property. Ebony Beach Club should be thriving, but it is now the site of Viceroy Santa Monica Hotel and a small parking lot, on land valued at nearly $1.6 million.
WE NEED YOUR HELP to get justice for Silas White and his descendants!
Descendants of Silas White, a Black entrepreneur and founder of "Ebony Beach Club," deserve full reparations, reclamation, and restitution NOW!
"An open wound with no remedy." - Milana Davis, Silas White's niece
Where Is My Land is supporting Constance White, daughter of Silas White, and her cousin, Milana Davis, with their family's battle to obtain full reparative justice for the city of Santa Monica's theft of "Ebony Beach Club," the former Elks Club building on Ocean Ave.
"I cannot say that denying my father's dream, of providing a beach club for Blacks killed him, but when he became sick, he gave up the will to fight; he felt defeated." - Constance White, Silas White's daughter
The City of Santa Monica Must Grant Full Reparations and Restitution to Silas White's Descendants
The city of Santa Monica has acknowledged the displacement of Black communities and businesses in the Belmar Triangle noting that it is "a painful part of our local history." But acknowledgment without full reparation and restitution is not justice!
The city of Santa Monica must grant full reparations and restitution to Silas White's descendants.Join the White Family's Fight for Reclamation and Reparations
You can help us hold the city of Santa Monica accountable and revive Silas White's dream of Ebony Beach club by joining the fight today!
Descendants of Silas White, Constance White and Milana Davis, are working with Where Is My Land, to reclaim their property and land, and their family's potential of intergenerational wealth. Here's how you can help:
Sign this petition and tell us why it's important to protect Silas White's legacy and Black life from racist city practices that violate hard-won property and land rights.Share the White Family's story with your community and on your social media platforms. Feel free to share the links below.Follow @whereismyland for updates on the White Family's case and their push for land reparations on Instagram, LinkedIn and Tiktok.
Where Is My Land is an organization dedicated to helping Black people discover, search for, identify, and reclaim land taken from them in an attempt to obtain full justice, reparation, and restitution for harms committed against them by government entities or private actors.
Donations on this website go to Change.org, not to Where Is My Land. Please donate to Where Is My Land by using this link:Donate Here to Where Is My Land
*Thank you for your support!*
More on Silas White and the Ebony Beach Club
"Ebony Beach Club Building," Santa Monica History Museum
"Silas White and the Dream of Ebony Beach Club," Where Is My Land
"Black Family Seeks Land Reparations," Spectrum 1 News
"Constance White and Milana Davis are fighting for restitution of Santa Monica land seized from family on grounds of eminent domain," CBS News
"Los Angeles Group fights eminent domain, racism," Orange County Register
"Black entrepreneurs built beach havens in California. Racism shut them down." High Country News
