The vote concludes a mediation process that began in the summer after the council authorized talks with White’s family
The Santa Monica City Council has agreed to pay $350,000 to the descendants of Silas White, a Black entrepreneur whose 1958 plan to open the Ebony Beach Club on Ocean Avenue was halted when the city seized the property through eminent domain.
The unanimous closed-session vote Tuesday concludes a mediation process that began in August after the council authorized talks with White’s family. The city will cover up to $15,000 in mediation costs in addition to the settlement amount.
White had signed a lease-to-own agreement for the former Elks Clubhouse at 1811 Ocean Ave. — now the site of the Viceroy Hotel — and incorporated the Ebony Beach Club as a nonprofit intended to serve Black residents during segregation. Signs were posted announcing an October 1958 opening, and the club had already attracted more than 400 prospective members.
City officials condemned the property in 1958, citing the need for civic development near the planned Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. A 1959 court ruling found that White and the nonprofit had no compensable interest in the land.
White’s family first filed a formal claim with the city in March 2024, seeking return of the land or financial restitution and drawing comparisons to the Bruce’s Beach case in Manhattan Beach.
The payout is separate from ongoing work by Santa Monica’s Landback and Reparations Task Force, formed earlier this year to develop broader remedies for historic harms to Black and Brown residents.
The city did not admit liability in the mediated agreement.
