Cecilia Rasmussen L.A. Then and Now: In 'Whites Only' Era, an Oasis for L.A.'s Blacks Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2005 B2, 1998, 1924
Inkwell in Santa Monica was the only local beach African Americans could go to in the 1920s. It was also home to the first black surfer.
"When 17-year-old Verna Deckard and her fiance, 21-year-old Arthur Lewis, visited Santa Monica in 1924, Inkwell Beach was the only place they could spread a blanket.
""All the rest of the beach … you couldn't go there unless you belonged to a club, and we couldn't belong to a club" because of racial restrictions, she recalled in a four-hour interview for the Los Angeles Public Library's Shades of L.A. project, which was taped before Verna Deckard Lewis Williams, as she later became, died in 1998."
", , ,
"Black investors had tried to purchase the adjacent Crystal Plunge site; they were rejected. But in 1924, it was sold to white developers who wanted to build a private beach club and hotel. Even before they broke ground, builders erected fences for the "safety of our members," The Times reported."