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1965

Before, during and after..

BRIEF HISTORY
Dalia
Viveros

WATTS: HISTORY

1926 city annexed to Los Angeles

Started off as multicultural: Latinos, African
Americans, Caucasian
1940s became predominantly African American
By 1950s 71.2% African American and 19.1%
Latinos
Early

1960s, housing projects 100% black

INVISIBILITY
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Invisible physically
Whites and blacks had very little
contact with each other
Invisible psychologically
When whites were exposed to
blacks whites were always in
the dominant position

FRUSTRATION- RISING TENSIONS

Many migrated in search for better opportunities

Faced

with class antagonism, racial prejudice, sociopolitical

powerlessness

Police practices
Offensive

language
Brutal force

Inadequate housing
Living

conditions had continued to deteriorate as whites

moved out
1960 census found that 22.5% of homes in Watts were
deteriorated

Watts Labor Community Action Committee

Established

a few months before the riot

Response to poverty

Some
CARLA ROMERO

details

BYRON
RUMFORD

YES

Click icon to add picture

NO

THE START OF IT
ALL
KELLI BOYLE

THE MAIN
CAUSE

African Americans
launched a racially
motivated riot against
White police officers.

THE TRIGGER POINT

White

Highway Patrol Officer, Lee Minikus, pulled over

suspected drunk driver, 21 year old Marquette Frye.

Marquette Frye was asked to do a sobriety test and he

failed it. So the police officer tells him he is under arrest.

22 year old step brother in the car asked if he could

driver the car home. CHP said no.

Step brother and mom returned to the scene. CHP officer

was waiting for a tow truck to impound the car (standard
procedure).

Large crowd gathered and yelled at Marquette to run

for it!

Officer felt threaten by crowd so he called for back up.

CONT
Drunk Marquette gained courage from the crowd and he
took off running into the crowd.
Officers grabbed him and wrestled him the floor.
Mom jumped on the back of an officer and step brother
started fighting other officers.
The crowd was fired up now, they were yelling racial
insults towards officers.

The crowd started throwing rocks and bottles at the

police cars as they were leaving the scene.
On August 11, 1965 at 7:45 pm, the riots officially
began.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/23/rena-price-dead-woman-whose-ar
rest-triggers-watts-riots_n_3486647.html

CHAOS

Jasmin Flores

A GLIPSE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r97uOfo2Tic

The watts riots caused so much damage to the

city.
People were taking advantage of the situation at
hand.
More than forty million dollars worth of property
damage
Cars and building set on fire
Police brutality
14,000 National Guards sent & curfew was set to
try and restore balance.

POST WATTS RIOTS

McCone Commission and Failed

Implementations

Felipe Esquivel

After the
Riots

A 3 month extensive study on the Watts Riots

A 101-page white paper filled with ambitious remedies
for many of Watts ills.
The commission recommended many needed
Implementations needed to fix the community and
prevent future problems
A report of the Watts Riots was published
530 witnesses interviewed
Including Mayor Sam Yorty and Los Angeles Police
Chief William Parker

WATTS RIOTS REPORT

EDUCATION
Pre-school
Class

Programs

Sizes down to 22 students

Emergency
Provide
School

literacy programs

free or reduced lunch

Libraries

Counseling
Adequate

and special services for students

special provisions should be made to

push students to College
CSUDH

Employment

The Commission considered employments as

the most serious immediate problem
Job training and placement centers

LAW ENFORCEMENTS
Improve relationship between the Police Dept.
and the various minority communities
Increase the number of African American and
Mexican American officers

Health Problems
Martin Luther King Hospital Opened after the Watts Riots
One major finding of the report was the lack of health care access
near the low income neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles
On August 10, 2007 the hospital closed

OTHER
RECOMMENDATIONS
Housing and Urban Development
City Human Relations Commission
Public Parks (none built)
Many of the proposed sites for parks became Liquor stores
Proposal models used racism

Consumer Problems
Increase and improve inspection programs for markets
Transportation
Reduce bus fares
105 freeway funds

2 years after the Watts Riots

Programs Come and Go (LA Times)
There was hope of redevelopment plans that were forgotten
A Lot of Motion (LA Times)
Conditions got worst than before 1960
Median income is down
Segregation widespread
School cutbacks
Welfare cases have climbed

25 YEARS LATER
Members

of the commission and its 70-person staff express sadness and frustration (LA
Times)
While some of the recommendations were adopted and sustained, bringing with them a
handful of substantive changes in Watts, most were not.
Some were enacted and then, for variety of reasons, were scaled back or allowed to die out
altogether.
Others simply ignored
In 1992, another massive riot took place due to police brutality

Thank you!
We know it was long