The Watts Riots

Soldiers march through the smoky haze as buildings and cars burn all around them. From time to time a rooftop sniper takes a shot at the advancing column. Crowds form and disperse in an instant as rocks, bottles, and Molotov are hastily launched at storefronts. It looks like a scene from a war movie, but in reality this is what Los Angeles looked like for several nights in 1965. 

LAPD officers arrest looters. Courtesy of AP Images

Causes

Watts is a neighborhood in Los Angeles county that during the 1960s housed a heavily impoverished predominantly black population. Between 1940 and 1965 Los Angeles County’s black population had grown from 75,000 to 650,000, much of these new residents moving into the Watts community. Many of these blacks came from the deep South and did not know how to read or write, the only skill they possessed was the ability to perform hard labor. Unfortunately there were little jobs of this type to go around as LA needed educated workers and not just laborers. Over two thirds of the population in Watts had less than a high school education, one in eight were illiterate, and the high school drop out rate was double the city average. To make things worse the schools in the Watts community were failing and were nowhere near the standard of other schools within the city. 

Affordable and safe housing was also a staggering issue. Nine in ten homes were built before 1939 and one out of every five was deteriorating, many lived in homes that had already been condemned. Watts had the lowest income rate in Los Angeles county and over 60% of families received some form of government welfare for food or housing. The community faced serious trouble and became especially angered when the Rumford Fair Housing Act was repealed.This act protected minorities against housing discrimination making it illegal for a property owner to deny renting or selling based off of race. This law was so important in fact that even Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came to LA to attempt to prevent its repeal, now not only did they have trouble affording a home but they also had to find one that would accept them. In the years leading up to the riot there would be over 250 demonstrations against the living conditions in Watts. To add insult to injury, the federally funded poverty programs were not being utilized in the neighborhood and instead were being used in less impoverished parts of the city. 

Officer flanked by several Watts residents. Courtesy of Time.

Black relations with the police and other city officials, like other parts of the country at the time, were not good. In 1961 a black man was arrested for riding a merry-go-round without a ticket, causing crowds to throw rocks and bottles at police. In 1962 the police raided a Nation of Islam mosque and killed an unarmed man in the process, causing a large protest to break out in the Watts community. In the two years leading up to the riots 65 black residents had been shot by police, 27 of which had been shot in the back and 25 were unarmed. It pays to keep in mind what police at the time considered “armed”, a mere pocket knife may have been reason enough to say that a suspect had a weapon. Escalations in the Vietnam War also lead to anger among residents as there was pressure put on young blacks to join the military. They did not want to go and fight for rights abroad when they did not possess the same rights back home. Many black religious leaders, in particular Catholic priests, tried to calm the minority population and encourage them to protest in nonviolent manners. Telling them that cooperating with the police and government officials was their best bet at enacting the change they wanted to see. Despite the poverty, government mistrust, and police hatred many LA residents considered Watts to be a well integrated neighborhood and most white residents did not believe that they would be subject to the riots that other major cities had. However in the summer of 1965 they would learn just how far the black community was willing to go once pushed too far. 

Demonstrators surround a police car. Courtesy of AP Photos.

How it Started

On Wednesday August 11, 1965 at around 7PM a white highway patrolman by the name of Lee Minikus pulled over a car under suspicion that the driver was drunk. The car contained two black step brothers by the names of Marquette and Ronald Frye. Marquette, who was driving, failed the field sobriety test Minikus administered to him and was placed under arrest. While they waited for a tow truck to pick up the car Ronald left to tell the boys stepmom, Rena, what had happened. A curious crowd of about 50 people had started to form around the scene and by most accounts Marquette was joking and laughing with the officers during the whole process. However when Ronald returned with their stepmom Marquette became violent and started resisting arrest. A report later released by a state panel asserts that he began, “cursing and shouting that they would have to kill him to take him to jail”. By this point the crowd of predominantly black bystanders was growing larger and more police started to show up to back-up the arresting officers. The heavier police presence combined with officers using racial slurs angered the crowd and caused them to become hostile, forcing a fight to break out between an officer and one of the bystanders. They attempted to quickly place handcuffs on Marquette before the situation became worse but he continued to resist and Rena jumped on one of the officers backs trying to pull him off her son. Ronald was trying to peacefully protest the arrests but one of the officers that had just arrived jabbed him in the stomach with his baton before going to assist the officers still fighting with Marquette. The officer then hit Marquette on the head with his baton, knocking him to the ground where he was handcuffed and taken to the patrol car. This riled the crowd up even more as they saw blood begin to seep out of Marquettes head. A report later filed would claim that the officer was trying to hit his shoulder but when Marquette jerked the baton hit his head. Rena was then arrested and thrown into the patrol car, Ronald following soon after. 

Center to right are Rena, Ronald, and Marquette Frye. Courtesy of the LA Times.

The crowd, now numbering roughly 1000, became angered at what they had just witnessed and more patrolman began showing up to contain them. The mob tried to surround the car holding the three arrestees but police used batons and shotguns to keep them at bay. Two motorcycle officers then began to leave the scene but were spat on by one of the bystanders. The two officers stopped to arrest the person but the crowd encircled them, forcing other officers to jump in and assist them. Consequently this caused more police to be called to the scene which further enraged the crowd. They attempted to arrest a woman named Joyce Ann Gaines, who they believed was the one who spat at them but she resisted and had to be dragged out of the growing mass of protesters. Many at the scene believed she was pregnant (she was not) and this caused them to be furious at the officers. Some reports claim that there was also a man arrested for spitting on them, but most sources only tell of Miss Gaines arrest. 

Two motorcycle cops. Courtesy of the Los Angeles Police Department.

After this incident the residents of the Watts neighborhood and surrounding area became frenzied and by 7:45 that evening a riot was occurring in full force. Rocks and bottles were being hurled into traffic and all roadways in the community were clogged with rioters. A few storefronts were smashed and looted, causing black business owners to spray paint “negro own” on their buildings to prevent them from being destroyed. Community leaders held an impromptu meeting and recommended that police officials keep officers out of Watts to prevent escalation but they would not listen. 

A police officer holds multiple looters at gunpoint. Courtesy of Julian Wasserman.

Escalation 

The following day rioters continued to attack commuters with rocks, bricks, and any other item they could throw. They pulled white drivers out of vehicles and beat them, frequently yelling “Kill the white man! Get the white man!” Stores continued to be looted and rioters began setting buildings and cars on fire.  

A community meeting was held that morning at Athens Park with church leaders, local government representatives, the NAACP, and some police officials all trying to find a way to quell the situation. However the meeting quickly turned into a fusillade of complaints against the police and the local government's mistreatment of blacks. Rena was also there, her and her sons had been released on bail that morning, and was imploring that the crowds calm down and that the violence stop. After Rena made her statement a teenager grabbed the microphone and proclaimed that blacks would begin moving into and attacking white neighborhoods. This comment was widely broadcast on television and in newspapers and caused mass hysteria in LA residents. Gun stores were soon swamped with whites purchasing firearms and ammunition for protection. In the meeting local leaders requested that more black officers be sent to deal with the rioters but LAPD Chief William H. Parker turned the request down, saying that he was going to call in the National Guard to deal with the matter. After these meetings most black city officials would stay out of the area, causing black residents to resent them. Rioters found out about the decisions made and these, along with news reports of the teen’s tirade during the meeting, caused them to escalate their violence even further. 

Los Angeles Police Department Chief William H. Parker. Courtesy of the Los Angeles Police Department.

That night mobs clashed with law enforcement and set buildings and vehicles ablaze. Looters continued to loot stores, especially targeting pawn shops so they could steal rifles to use against the police. The vicious mob also shot at firefighters, preventing them from putting out the fires they had set. By the end of that second day 75 people had been injured, including 13 policemen, and dozens of buildings had been consumed in flames. 

Buildings set on fire by rioters. Courtesy of New York World Telegram.

At the start of August 13, the third day of rioting, police thought it was over as the streets were clear, but by 9AM they swelled with protesters once again and quickly turned violent. This prompted Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty and Chief Parker to request deployment of the National Guard. The request was made around 10AM but the guard would not arrive until 7PM that evening. This caused the riot to get way out of hand as police could not handle them and many credit the riots first death, a young black man who was an innocent bystander caught between police and rioters crossfire, to the National Guards slow deployment. What was the hold up one might ask? Governor Edmund Brown was in Greece on vacation and Lt. Governor Glenn Anderson waited six hours before approving the request. 

National Guardsmen armed with M1 carbines block a roadway. Courtesy of the LA Times.

Chief Parker only made the situation worse by calling the protesters “monkeys in a zoo” and implying that muslims had infiltrated the riots and were instigating them. By the end of the third day the riot had spread across a 46.5 square-mile patch of the South-Central region of LA. A firefighter had died due to a collapsing wall, a LA County Sheriff's deputy died after being shot by friendly fire and a Long Beach Officer was killed as the riot spread to other cities. 13,900 National Guard troops arrived and erected barricades to prevent it from spreading any further. Now police and guardsmen were finally able to escort firefighters to the building that had been burning for most of the day. The Guard patrolled city streets with jeeps mounted with .30 caliber machine guns and snipers began targeting the officers and guardsmen. Police began raiding buildings and vehicles controlled by the rioters in an attempt to find the sharpshooters, in response Molotov cocktails were thrown and more buildings were set on fire. Los Angeles was a veritable war zone but luckily the violence would peak this day. 

Two guardsmen set up a .30 caliber Browning machine gun as other guard members patrol the street. Courtesy of Getty Images.

The next day, August 14, Lt. Governor Anderson announced an 8PM curfew but by this time the riot was already subsiding. There would be sporadic acts of violence for the next few days but nothing as major as what was seen on Friday, and by Monday, the last day of the riot, all but 252 National Guardsmen had left the city. In the early morning of that final day, when violence was at a trickle, police surrounded a mosque and fired several shots at members inside before arresting them. They also ransacked the building next door and tear gassed the sewers underneath to prevent anyone from escaping. Suspiciously after the raid occurred two fires broke out and destroyed the mosque. Charges were later dropped against those arrested and the Muslim community would accuse the police of using the riots as an excuse to destroy their place of worship. This would be the final major action of the Watts Riots. 

Los Angeles Police Department raiding a looted store. Public Domain.

Aftermath

There were 34 deaths as a direct result of the community's fierce outburst, over 1,000 were injured, and close to 3,500 were arrested, most being black citizens. 26 of the deaths, which were mostly the result of actions taken by either police or National Guard, were deemed justifiable homicides. Over 600 buildings had been damaged by fire and looting, 200 of which were completely destroyed. Over $40 million worth of property was destroyed which would be over $322 million today. A commission was set up to study the cause of the riot and they made several community development suggestions, asking for improvements to schools, employment, housing, healthcare, and police relations with the community. Unfortunately there was not much follow up to these suggestions but the riots did spark local DIY activism in the Watts area. Many, including reformed gang members, joined the Black Panther group to rebuild the community and monitor the police. Unfortunately even with this community involvement Watts would be slow to rebuild and even over a decade later was not back to where it was before the riot.

Buildings on fire in Watts. Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library.

Despite the obvious reasons there were plenty who played the blame game. Politicians, city officials, and the press claimed that the riots were caused by the lawlessness yearned for by the minority men that predominantly made up the afflicted areas. They blamed the recent influx of blacks for the riot, not the living conditions that had been vehemently protested against within the city. Some even called it an insurrection spurned on by urban gangs and the Black Muslim movement. The press in particular criticized muslim groups harshly, calling them radical cults and shifting much of the blame onto them. Many worried that this would be a revolt that would spread across the country and to a degree they were right as this riot was not an isolated incident. In 1964 and 1965 places like New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago saw numerous protests and demonstrations by disgruntled black residents and riots would continue throughout the 1960s and 1970s. 

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. visits LA. Courtesy of Curbed LA.

On August 17 Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. visited the Watts area to observe the damage and try to direct leaders within the black community. He deplored the rioters use of violence and preached a more peaceful approach, but he was also quick to point out the reasons for it starting. What he saw in Watts helped to reinforce his idea that the Civil Rights movement needed to expand farther North and into more urban areas. King said that the riots were “the beginning of a stirring of those people in our society who have been by passed by the progress of the past decade” and would later use Watts in his speeches as an example of what not to do. He said that it profited the community little to burn down their own businesses and houses and that lifting themselves up and building their community was the only way to go. King would also go on to speak to President Lyndon B. Johnson about the Watts riots, Johnson then using it as ammunition against Congress to fight for his “War on Poverty” and bring more federal aid to downtrodden areas. 

The riots in Watts would ultimately serve as a lesson to local governments and law enforcement of what can happen when a people are pushed too far. Helping to cause reform within the system.  

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Personal Thoughts 

Riots and domestic disturbances interest me greatly and oddly enough despite how big this riot was I hadn’t known about it until recently. I really only knew about the LA Riots in the early 90s. It is definitely a learning experience seeing how a community under tremendous pressure will act when pushed too far.

Sources 

Cover Photo courtesy of Hulton Archive

https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/watts-riots

https://www.britannica.com/event/Watts-Riots-of-1965

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-watts-riots-explainer-20150715-htmlstory.html

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/watts-rebellion-los-angeles

https://www.c-span.org/video/?327579-1/reel-america-watts-riot-revolt-1965

https://www.c-span.org/classroom/document/?1872

https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/president-johnson-and-martin-luther-king-jr-on-the-watts-riots