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'He came here just because he had heard it was such a wonderful place. 'My father migrated here during The Great Migration,' Santa Monica resident Carolyne Edwards told The Argonaut in February 2020.

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Du Bois) of a golden world free of racism and oppression. But Bay Street Beach represents a fraction of Santa Monica's African American legacy.ĭuring the early 20th century, more African Americans would move to greater Los Angeles, lured by stories (propagated by such figures as W.E.B. In 2019, the 53-acre Bay Street Beach was recognized as a historic district by the National Register of Historic Places. Today, a small marker honors its place in California history as well as the legacy of Gabaldón, who died in a surfing accident in 1951. Many chose to go to Bay Street for safety, comfort and community. Although restrictions keeping African Americans off Southern California beaches had been struck down in 1927, Black people often faced discrimination and abuse when they ventured onto L.A. He eventually took to riding the waves in Malibu, paddling six miles north and another six miles back, because he knew he would not be welcome walking on most of Santa Monica's beaches.įrom the 1910s to the 1960s, Bay Street Beach was a recreational center for people of color. With this heavy, 13-foot board, Gabaldón taught himself to surf, becoming the first documented Black surfer in America. Here, Gabaldón would bodysurf for hours, impressing two white lifeguards who loaned him a rescue board. Derisively called 'the Inkwell' by some white Angelenos, Bay Street Beach was a haven for people of color. In the 1940s, Nick Gabaldón, an athletic, handsome student at Santa Monica High School, would often escape class to Bay Street Beach, a half-mile stretch of shoreline roughly between Pico and Bicknell Streets, by the Casa Del Mar hotel.