The Ebony Beach Club, in collaboration with the Black Lives Matter Foundation, hosted a Juneteenth celebration at the Santa Monica Pier on Saturday, featuring free surf lessons in the morning and a sold-out live music performance in the evening.
The event, which drew hundreds to the iconic coastline, served as both a cultural celebration and a reflection on the historical injustices faced by Black beachgoers in Southern California. Organizers described the gathering as a “full-circle moment,” referencing the legacy of the original Ebony Beach Club founded in 1957 by Silas White.
White envisioned the original club as an exclusive Black social club at a time when segregation and Jim Crow laws barred Black Americans from equal access to public spaces, including beaches. Located on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica, the club never opened its doors. The City of Santa Monica claimed the property through eminent domain, stating it was needed for a civic parking lot—one that was never built.
Despite the club’s original closure before it began, its mission endured. The current iteration of the Ebony Beach Club was co-founded in 2020 by Justin “Brick” Howze, Gage Crismond, and Tre’lan Tillman, following a racially charged incident Howze experienced while surfing in the South Bay. Instead of retreating in the face of adversity, the trio sought to build an inclusive and empowering community space for Black surfers and beach enthusiasts.
“The Santa Monica Pier, once a site of exclusion for Black beachgoers, becomes the exact place we reclaim through dance, culture, and celebration,” the Ebony Beach Club and Black Lives Matter Foundation said in a joint statement. “This is a full-circle moment—celebrating on the same land that our elders were pushed from while making space for joy, culture, and presence where it was once denied.”
All proceeds from the sold-out concert portion of the event will benefit the Black Surfers Collective and the Aquatic Futures Foundation—two nonprofit organizations dedicated to increasing equitable access to the ocean. Their programs focus on community healing through surfing, marine science education, environmental stewardship, and developing career pathways in marine fields for underrepresented youth.
The Juneteenth celebration at the Santa Monica Pier continues the Ebony Beach Club’s mission to not only foster cultural joy but also to address the enduring legacies of systemic exclusion through community-led action and coastal reclamation.
