Segregated Beaches?

Segregated Beaches!
The thought is hard to fathom but read the following story I pulled from the"Legendary Surfers" site:

Gabaldon & Inkwell Beach

Gabaldon & Inkwell Beach (click this for more)
[ Excerpt of "City Commemorates Ink Well Beach, First Black Surfer," By Anita Varghese, SurfSantaMonica.com ]... Ink Well Beach, the 200-square-foot portion of Santa Monica State Beach that was once roped off and reserved only for African-Americans, will soon be awarded its own commemorative plaque by the City.

Nick Gabaldon, a Santa Monica High School student and the first documented black surfer, taught himself how to surf here."Gabaldon was born February 23, 1927 in Los Angeles and is actually of African-American and Hispanic descent.He lived most of his life in Santa Monica and was one of 50 African-American students to attend and graduate from Santa Monica High School in the 1940s.As a teenager, he learned to surf at Ink Well Beach with a wooden surfboard borrowed from a friendly Caucasian lifeguard.

In the 1940s, roughly 2,000 African-Americans lived in Santa Monica and created a thriving community of well-attended churches and successful businesses at the neighborhood end of Ink Well Beach.Lloyd C. Allen became Santa Monica’s first African-American millionaire with his Allen Janitorial Supply business, which opened in 1949 at the corner of Fourth Street and Pico Boulevard.

After graduation, Gabaldon joined the United States Navy and fought in the last months of World War II between 1945 and 1946. With his Navy enlistment over, he returned to Santa Monica in 1946 and enrolled in Santa Monica College.He spent his time studying at the local college and honing his surf skills with better surfboards at Ink Well.The waves were higher and more challenging at Malibu’s Surfrider Beach, Gabaldon learned in 1949.

Other legendary surfers of the 1940s and 1950s such as Ricky Grigg, Matt Kivlin, Mickey Munoz, Bob Simmons and Buzzy Trent were in awe at Gabaldon’s Malibu surfing abilities and counted him as their close friend.He made Surfrider Beach his surfing home, but initially had difficulty making the 12-mile trip north from Santa Monica.Not owning a car, he tried to hitchhike along the Pacific Coast Highway, but most drivers refused to stop for the tall, muscular African-American man.Gabaldon found a novel way to reach Malibu -- by paddling on his surfboard across Santa Monica Bay nearly each day until his untimely death at age 24.He died on June 6, 1951 when he slammed into the Malibu Pier after riding a strong south swell estimated by witnesses to be 10 feet high.His surfboard was found immediately, but his body washed ashore on Las Flores Beach a few days later and is now buried at Santa Monica’s Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery.