Here are the morning’s top stories on Monday, August 26, 2024…
- In Santa Monica, one woman is still seeking justice, decades after the city took her father’s land. Silas White was a black entrepreneur who planned to turn the land into a beach club for black beachgoers. In March, the Santa Monica City Council voted to explore compensating White’s descendants for his plot of land. But in late July, the city missed its self-imposed deadline for a report that would have provided recommendations on reparations to the council.
- State occupational health and safety regulators are trying to speed up their investigations of fatal accidents. Cal/OSHA is staffing up across the state to help review cases involving worker deaths.
Santa Monica Misses Self-Imposed Deadline To Tackle Reparations
Earlier this year, the Santa Monica City Council voted to explore compensating the descendants of a Black man named Silas White for his plot of land on Ocean Avenue near Pico Boulevard. Decades ago, White dreamed of converting a building he owned into the Ebony Beach Club, a place where African Americans could feel safe from discrimination while at the beach in Santa Monica. The city took the land, saying they needed it for public parking. Now the luxury Viceroy Hotel sits on the site.
But in late July, the city missed its self-imposed deadline for a report that would have provided recommendations on reparations to the council.
The family of Silas White continues to push for justice. “The dream of the beach club was always in the back of his mind. It was the only beach that black people would go to,” his daughter Connie White said. “And it just felt that it wasn’t just that we were only able to use that one portion of the beach that didn’t have any facilities, no where to change clothes or no where to eat or anything like that. So he was taking all of that into consideration.”
The group Where Is My Land is working with the White family. CEO Kavon Ward said she was disappointed but not surprised by the council delay. She said she still believes the city of Santa Monica will compensate the family, but it’s unclear if it will be done fairly.
State Agency Works To Speed Up Investigations Of Deadly Workplace Accidents
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health has bolstered staff to investigate worker deaths, and whether there is any criminal negligence involving employers.