Zoot Suit Riots

1
Zoot Suit Riots
Primary Content The Americans Reconstruction to
the 21st Century Images as Cited.
http//www.chicano.ucla.edu/center/events/Sleepy_L
agoon/SleepyLagCol.htm
2

• The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots that
  erupted in Los Angeles, California during World
  War II, between sailors and soldiers stationed in
  the city and Hispanic youths, who were
  recognizable by the zoot suits they favored.

http//www.chicano.ucla.edu/center/events/Sleepy_L
agoon/SleepyLagCol.htm
3

• While Mexican Americans were mostly beaten,
  African American and Filipino American youths
  were also targeted.

http//www.library.ucla.edu/special/scweb/slwar11.
htm
4

• The riots began in Los Angeles, amidst a period
  of rising racial tensions between American
  servicemen stationed in southern California and
  the Los Angeles Chicano community.

http//www.picturehistory.com/find/p/13038/mcms.ht
ml
5

• Many of the tensions between the Chicano
  community and the sailors existed because the
  servicemen walked through Chicano neighborhoods
  on the way back to their barracks after nights of
  drinking.

http//www.library.ucla.edu/special/scweb/slwar14.
htm
6

• The discrimination against the Chicano minority
  community was compounded by robberies and fights
  during these drunken interactions.

http//www.library.ucla.edu/special/scweb/slwar12.
htm
7

• In July 1942, a group of Hispanic youths fought
  back against the police who attempted to break up
  a street corner gambling game.

8

• In October 1942, over 600 Chicano youth were
  arrested, and dozens charged, in the killing of
  Jose Diaz in a supposed gang brawl at the Sleepy
  Lagoon reservoir.

Henry Leyvas arrested and convicted in a police
round-up for the murder ofJose Diaz. Later, the
courts would reverse his conviction.
Jose Diaz
http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/eng_peopleevents
/e_murder.html
9

• This led to a court trial whose convictions were
  later overturned. During the case, sensationalist
  press accounts (yellow journalism) inflamed
  hostility towards young Chicanos.

http//www.calstatela.edu/orgs/mecha/zoot-suit.htm
10

• The following year, clashes between white
  servicemen and Hispanic youths increased. In May
  1943, sailors claimed that zoot suiters stabbed
  a sailor, and they retaliated by beating young
  Hispanics leaving a local dance.

http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/eng_timeline/tim
eline2.html
11

• On May 31, 1943, a group of white sailors on
  leave clashed with a group of young Hispanics in
  the downtown area. One sailor, Joe Dacy Coleman,
  was badly injured. In response, 50 white sailors
  gathered and headed out to downtown and East Los
  Angeles, which was the center of the Hispanic
  community.

http//www.1947project.com/blog?from245
12

• The sailors attacked young people, especially
  targeting males in zoot suits. In many
  instances, the police intervened by arresting
  Hispanic youths for disturbing the peace. The
  police left the sailors to the military justice
  system.

http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/eng_timeline/tim
eline2.html
13

• The violence escalated over the ensuing days.
  Thousands of servicemen joined the attack. Many
  African Americans assisted the Chicano community
  by providing vehicles and weapons to fight back
  against the Caucasian sailors.

http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/eng_peopleevents
/e_murder.html
14

• Several hundred pachucos (as the young Hispanic
  men were known) and nine sailors were arrested as
  a result of the fighting that occurred over the
  next few days.

http//www.calstatela.edu/orgs/mecha/zoot-suit.htm

15

• An eyewitness to the attacks, journalist Carey
  McWilliams, described the scene as follows.
• Marching through the streets of downtown Los
  Angeles, a mob of several thousand soldiers,
  sailors, and civilians, proceeded to beat up
  every zoot suiter they could find. Pushing its
  way into the important motion picture theaters,
  the mob ordered the management to turn on the
  house lights and then ran up and down the aisles
  dragging Mexicans out of their seats. Streetcars
  were halted while Mexicans, and some Filipinos
  and Negroes, were jerked off their seats, pushed
  into the streets and beaten with a sadistic
  frenzy.

Carey McWilliams. North From Mexico. Quoted in
Richard Griswold del Castillo. The Los Angeles
Zoot Suit Riots Revisited Mexican Studies,
Vol. 16, No. 2 (Summer, 2000), pp. 367-391.
16

• The local press commended the attacks by the
  servicemen, describing the assaults as having a
  cleansing effect that were ridding Los Angeles
  of miscreants and hoodlums.

Two pachuco zoot-suiters, one stripped to his
underwear, lie beaten and humiliated in a Los
Angeles street.
Carey McWilliams. Blood on the Pavements. In
Fools Paradise A Carey McWilliams Reader.
Heyday Books, 2001.
http//www.themote.com/viewThread.asp?thread168L
ast1
17

• The violence only subsided when military
  authorities intervened on June 7. They declared
  that Los Angeles would be off-limits to all
  military personnel. Of the nine sailors that were
  arrested, eight were released with no charges and
  one had to pay a small fine.

Zootsuitriot.jpg?
18

• A week later, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
  characterized the riots, which the local press
  had largely attributed to criminal actions by the
  Mexican American community, as in fact being
  race riots rooted in long-term discrimination
  against Mexican Americans. This led to an
  outraged response by the Los Angeles Times, which
  accused Mrs. Roosevelt of stirring up racial
  discord.

http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/eng_timeline/tim
eline2.html