When Kavon Ward walks onto Bruce’s Beach in Manhattan Beach, a wealthy, predominately white coastal enclave in southern California, she keeps her focus on the ocean. Looking elsewhere gets her blood boiling.

“I feel disgusted. When I look straight ahead into the water I am fine, but when I look right or left and see all these big homes owned by white people, I get mad,” she says.

Her anger stems from last year’s movement to return Bruce’s Beach to the heirs of Willa and Charles Bruce. The couple had purchased the property in 1912 as a haven for African Americans barred from swimming at or enjoying seashores designed for whites only. In its heyday, the property included a resort