Today we remember the Los Angeles zoot suit riots, which started on June 3, 1943, in Los Angeles. A group comprised of US service men and civilians already angry at the increasing Mexican American population became even angrier upon hearing the news of an attack near Chinatown on a group of 12 sailors by Mexican American teenagers wearing zoot suits.
Fifty sailors left the armory that evening armed with makeshift weapons. In the days following, civilians joined in the rioting. California-based journalist Carey McWilliams watched the chaos unfold before his eyes:
“Thousands of Angelenos turned out for a mass lynching,” he reported. “A mob of several thousand soldiers, sailors, and civilians” stopped streetcars carrying patrons throughout the metro area, jerked “Mexicans, and some Filipinos and Negroes . . . out of their seats,” and beat them “with sadistic frenzy.”
McWilliams was stunned as the mob continued moving through downtown Los Angeles and wreaking havoc, seemingly unstoppable. McWilliams soon learned that the attackers that night were looking for “every zoot-suiter they could find.”
Below, an image of the zoot suit that was worn as a fashion statement by many Mexican American youths in the 40's. The look originated in the night clubs of Harlem by entertainers like Cab Calloway and jazz great, Lionel Hampton.
Today we remember the Los Angeles zoot suit riots, which started on June 3, 1943, in Los Angeles. A group comprised of US service men and civilians already angry at the increasing Mexican American population became even angrier upon hearing the news of an attack near Chinatown on a group of 12 sailors by Mexican American teenagers wearing zoot suits.
Fifty sailors left the armory that evening armed with makeshift weapons. In the days following, civilians joined in the rioting. California-based journalist Carey McWilliams watched the chaos unfold before his eyes:
“Thousands of Angelenos turned out for a mass lynching,” he reported. “A mob of several thousand soldiers, sailors, and civilians” stopped streetcars carrying patrons throughout the metro area, jerked “Mexicans, and some Filipinos and Negroes . . . out of their seats,” and beat them “with sadistic frenzy.”
McWilliams was stunned as the mob continued moving through downtown Los Angeles and wreaking havoc, seemingly unstoppable. McWilliams soon learned that the attackers that night were looking for “every zoot-suiter they could find.”
Below, an image of the zoot suit that was worn as a fashion statement by many Mexican American youths in the 40's. The look originated in the night clubs of Harlem by entertainers like Cab Calloway and jazz great, Lionel Hampton.
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