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zuit suit riots THE ZOOT SUIT RIOTS Citizens of early 1940s Los Angeles lived in an atmosphere of racial tension that ultimately exploded in the Zoot Suit Riots.
Submitted by flashniggs3000 on December 13, 2005
Category: History Other
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THE ZOOT SUIT RIOTS
Citizens of early 1940s Los Angeles lived in an atmosphere of racial tension that ultimately exploded in the Zoot Suit Riots. But what caused the unrest? In the decades leading up to the rioting, Los Angeles experienced an unprecedented population explosion. Along with Midwesterners who flocked to Los Angeles, thousands of Mexican refugees fleeing the Mexican Revolution made their way there. So too did landless white laborers escaping the Dust Bowl in the Southern Plains, and African Americans seeking more opportunity than they'd had in the South. The coming of war in 1941 further complicated the city's dynamics. White men went off to fight in a mostly white military, and women and people of color filled the jobs in the defense industry previously reserved for white males. This situation, which is prompting racial antagonism between the Mexican, Anglo-Saxon and Black communities will undoubtedly have grave international repercussions which will inevitably damage the war effort and thwart the gains made by the Good Neighbor policy.
Many Angelenos saw themselves on the frontline of the battle with Japan and felt vulnerable to a West Coast attack. Civilian patrols were established throughout the city and Los Angeles beaches were lined with anti-aircraft guns. Civilian and military leaders in Los Angeles all too easily saw cultural and racial difference among Japanese Americans as subversion and betrayal, and supported the forced relocation of Japanese Americans into camps set up in the rural West. Consequently, up to 50,000 servicemen could be found in Los Angeles on any given weekend. Tensions between servicemen and civilians were on the rise as thousands of military men on leave poured into Los Angeles, using the city as a playground for booze, women, and fights. While many civilians tolerated them because of the war, others did not. Particularly in the segregated, ethnic areas of Los Angeles, unruly servicemen met...
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