Bronze plaque honors early seaside haven for black beachgoers
SM BEACH After more than a year of planning, city officials announced last week the creation of a bronze plaque to commemorate a stretch of the Santa Monica Beach that was long referred to by many as the “Ink Well.”
The plaque, which will be installed in the coming months, will also pay tribute to the first documented African-American surfer, Nicolas Gabaldon, a Santa Monica High School student who was known to paddle his surfboard the 12 miles north to Malibu to ride the waves because he didn’t own a car and hitchhiking on Pacific Coast Highway wasn’t the best mode of transportation for a black man in the 1940s.
The plaque will be installed adjacent to the bike path at the end of Bay Street, providing an opportunity to recognize an important piece of the city’s history, said Jessica Cusick, cultural affairs manager at City Hall.
It was in February of last year that surfer Rhonda Harper went before the City Council asking for the city to do something to recognize a roughly 200-foot stretch of beach that had been established as a place specifically for blacks only. Decades before any equality legislation, the segregated beach offered blacks a place to enjoy the sun and sand without fear of being harassed or beaten.
“This was a very important place for black folks,” said William Lamar, president of the Black Surfing Association, Southern California Chapter. “It was a place where black folks could go without being harassed or run up on and hit in the head. Nick was one of the few brothers at that beach who really patrolled it and made it safe for everyone to enjoy since the white lifeguards really refused to work there.”
Lamar is working on a documentary about the early days of black surfing called “Soul on a Wave,” and interviewed Gabaldon’s friends who said that Gabaldon eventually became known throughout Malibu and was accepted at most beaches.
To create the plaque, city staff met with interested parties, attended a meeting of the Black Surfing Association, researched the history of the site as well as Gabaldon’s biography, and contacted historian Alison Rose Jefferson. Suggested language for the plaque was submitted by the various groups and several drafts were circulated for review.
Staff also solicited input from the former chair of the Santa Monica Conservancy, Ken Breisch.
The final draft was developed by Jefferson, who is currently employed by the Historic Resources Group.
The plaque will read: “The Ink Well: A Place of Celebration and Pain. The beach near this site between Bay and Bicknell Streets, known by some as ‘the Ink Well,’ was an important gathering place for African Americans long after racial restrictions on public beaches were abandoned in 1927.
“African American groups from Santa Monica, Venice and Los Angeles, as early as the 1920s to the end of the Jim Crow era in the 1950s, preferred to enjoy the sun and surf here because they encountered less racial harassment than at other Southland beaches.
“In the 1940s, Nick Gabaldon, a Santa Monica High School student and the first documented black surfer, taught himself how to surf here.”
The plaque, which will be approximately 20 by 24 inches, will be mounted on a large-scale boulder and placed in a small landscaped area adjacent to the intersection of the bike path and the boardwalk that extends out onto the beach, Cusick said. The location was selected to offer the public the opportunity to learn about one aspect of the history of that specific stretch of beach without impacting the existing landscaping.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 10, 2007. Read the original PDF.