By Jorge Casuso
November 24, 2025 -- The family of a Black entrepreneur that claims the Civic Center land for his beach club was taken by the City in the late 1950s will receive $350,000 in a settlement announced last week.
The settlement, unanimously approved by the City Council, recognizes the family's efforts to "address alleged wrongs" to Silas White, who tried to create the Ebony Beach Club for Blacks in the segregated city.
It also gives the claim led by his daughter Constance White full consideration under a restorative program the Council will take up by January and allows "leasehold interests" to be eligible for a claims process.
That qualifies the claim after City officials concluded the family was not entitled to the land because White's group of investors had signed a lease-to-purchase agreement ("Family of Black Entrepreneur Has No Claim to Property Taken by the City," March 28, 2025).
Under the terms of the settlement -- reached after a day-long mediation on October 30 -- the City will also establish an exhibit honoring White, "a prominent Black entrepreneur" who died in 1962, according to City staff.
In addition, the Council will proclaim October 12 Silas White day and rename a portion of Vicente Terrace that has no mailing addresses Silas White Street.
The settlement approved by a 7 to 0 closed session vote comes after the White family claimed at a March 2024 Council meeting that the property was taken from White in a racially motivated eminent domain action.
The family was seeking financial compensation or the return of the land near the beach currently occupied by surface parking spaces at the northwest end of the Viceroy Hotel property at the corner of Pico Boulevard and Ocean Avenue.
The White family compared their situation to the Bruce’s Beach case, where an oceanfront property in Manhattan Beach was returned to the family. The Bruce family subsequently sold the property back to Los Angeles County for nearly $20 million.
But a year after White's family presented their case to the Council, City officials concluded after four months of research that White didn't own the property in question.
Records showed that "on May 15, 1957, a group of investors called Silas White & Associates signed a lease-to-purchase agreement for land at 1811 Ocean Ave., which was owned by a white man named Bennett Dorsey."
"The agreed purchase price was $200,000, to be paid in monthly installments of $2,700 over 15 years," according to City staff.
"The first page of the Agreement acknowledged Seller’s receipt of $8,250 from the Buyer but does not specify what portion of that was paid by Mr. White or by his associates."
"Investments were made in property improvements, advertisements were published, and more than 400 prospective members expressed interest in joining" before the City in August 1958 filed to eminent domain five parcels, including the club site.
The following year, a court awarded $74,000 to Dorsey and the family that invested in the property "and concluded that Ebony Beach Club Inc. had no right, title, or interest in the land," according to the July 29 staff report.
"The club never opened and there is no record of whether any funds were shared by the landowners with Mr. White or the Ebony Beach Club, Inc."
After providing the White family's legal representatives with the findings, they responded with an initial estimate of $125,000 in economic loss in 1959 "as a base line to determine present-day value of that lost opportunity," according to City staff.
On July 29, the Council gave the go-ahead to begin mediation in an effort "to come to a resolution that considers the city’s position and also provides some form of reparation to the family."
"The Ebony Beach Club was not an isolated case," staff wrote. "The use of eminent domain in Santa Monica has been shown to disproportionately impact Black and Brown residents, businesses, and neighborhoods."
"While legal at the time, such actions are now examined through the lens of restorative justice."