Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles

Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles
Outline
Topic: The Zoot Suit Riots of 1943: What caused them, what happened, and what were the effects?

Introduction
Causes for the riots in 1943
History of racism
Stylish dress seen as un-American during wartime.
Stage set for riots
Sleepy Lagoon murder case and the Zoot Suit riots
Effects of riots
Cultural repression
Political activism in Mexican American community
Series of reforms in the Los Angeles Police Department
Causes
Mexican Revolution, World War I, “brown scare”.
Mexican Americans depicted as security risk
Formation of racist policies and procedures
Bias in criminal justice system.
Academic theories of criminal behavior
Media sensationalized violence in barrio
What happened
Sleepy Lagoon Murder Case in 1942
Jose Diaz found dead at a swimming hole
Biased trial
Zoot Suit Riots in 1943
What is a zoot-suit
What it represented
Why sentiment was against the zoot-suit
The riot
No direct cause
Lasted 10 days
44 Mexican Americans arrested
No servicemen arrested
Lasting Effects
Many Mexican American families “anglicized” their children
Other Mexican Americans became more politically active
Reformation of LAPD standards of conduct.
Officers took race relations training
Added more Mexican Americans to force
Conclusion/Epilogue
Mexican Americans criminalized as a race.
This set the stage for a 10 day riot
Lasting effects As diverse as the city of Los Angeles is, it has a history of racial tension and civil unrest. From 1910, the start of the Mexican Revolution and World War I when President Theodore Roosevelt instituted the “brown scare” (Coerver, 2001), to 1913, when the California Alien Land Act prohibited Japanese immigrants and citizens of Japanese descent from owning land in California, to 1934, when 3000 Chinese immigrants were displaced to make way for Union Station, to 1942, when 110,000 Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps, Los Angeles has historically been the

References: Bustillo, M. (September 5, 1995). “Cultural Crusader: Ricardo R. Melendez visits Latino communities determined to teach young people about their heritage.” The Los Angeles Times. p. B1. Coerver, D. (Spring 2001). “Ethnicity, identity, and nationalism in Mexico de Afuera.” Journal of American Ethnic History (New Brunswick). Vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 133-7. Coleman, J. A. (2001). “It only changes shape.” America. New York. Vol. 185, no. 1, pp. 32-3. Cosgrove, S. (1985). “The Zoot-Suit and Style Warfare.” History Workshop Journal (Great Britain). No. 18, p. 77-91. Del Olmo, F. (March 19, 2000). “Commentary: L.A.’s Latinos to the Chandlers.” The Los Angeles Times. p. M5. Marquez, B. (Spring 2001). “Race, Police, and the Making of a Political Identity: Mexican Americans and the Los Angeles Police Department, 1900-1945.” The International Migration Review. Vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 331-332. Obregon Pagan, E. (2000). “Los Angeles Geopolitics and the Zoot Suit Riot, 1943.” Social Science History. 24(1): 223-256. Sotomayor, F. O. (October 25, 1999). “Stories that Shaped the Century: Zoot Suits Set Off Rage of Vigilante Servicemen.” The Los Angeles Times. p. 4. Tobar, H. (April 20, 1997). “Sleepy Lagoon Victims Laud Their Champion.” The Los Angeles Times. p. B1. “Year by Year: Southern California Chronology.” (January 10, 1999). Los Angeles Times. p. 6.