On the evening of August 13, 1965, South Los Angeles resembled a war zone. Buildings were
on fire, the streets were in total chao and gun fires were being exchanged between police
and the local black residences. While rioters were busy looting, burning and clashing with
the police. 14,000 national guardsmen and 2,000 police officers were making preparations
to march into the city. How did we get here?
It’s important to understand that the population of Los Angeles changed massively between the
1940s and 1960s. The black population of LA went from 65,000 to nearly 700,000, at the
start of the 1960s. Furthermore, most blacks were housed in Southeast LA, a section of
the city with failing schools, little to no public transport and severely lacking public
funding.
Most of the black residences were also upset with the government and the city mayor. The
mayor who turned down anti-poverty and federal job programs, both of which would have massively
help the community of Southeast LA. The same community in which ⅔ of the residences didn’t
have a high school degree, ⅛ were illiterate and where 83% of the housing were built before
the 1940s.
It’s also important to understand that all of this happened during the Civil Rights Movement.
It was at a point where many African Americans felt outraged at the treatment of their kind,
the rampant police brutality and the systematic racism that they faced. Urban riots and protests
erupted all around America. Most of which, started from cases of police brutality and
abuse against black citizens. It was only a matter of time before something big happened
in Los Angeles.
On August 11, 1965 at around 7 pm, two white California Highway patrol officers pulled
over a car near the corner Avalon Boulevard and 116th Street. They were responding to
reports of reckless driving. Step-brothers Marquette and Ronald Frye stepped out the
vehicle to take a sobriety test, Marquette, the driver, would fail. The police would go
on to tow their vehicle before being interrupted by Rena Frye, the mother. She would go on
to berate Marquette for his drinking and driving.
Marquette Frye, previously acting calm and complying, would become hostile towards the
police and say that they (the police officers) would have to kill him to take him to jail.
The situation was escalating. One officer decided to call for backup while another tried
to detain Marquette. He tried to handcuff him but stopped when Rena Frye jumped on his
back. The other officer pulled out his baton and tried to hit Marquette on the shoulder,
he missed and instead hit his head causing him to bleed. Ronald would join in the altercation,
trying to protect his brother.
By now, a crowd of 50 would gather to watch the scene, with more people joining as word
began to spread. Eventually, more police officers arrived at the scene and were successful in
restraining Marquette, Ronald and Rena Frye. However, the crowd grew agitated, word spread
that the officers were allegedly abusing Rena Frye. The situation escalated further when
a woman showed her disdain by spitting on one of the police officers.
The officer chased after the woman and dragged her from the crowd. The crowd grew more agitated
as word spread that the woman was allegedly pregnant. The crowd of now 1,000 began throwing
rocks, bottles and more at police cruisers and other neary motor vehicles. By 7:45 pm,
the scene was total chaos, white motorists were dragged out of their vehicles and beaten,
stores were broken into and lotted and police clashed with the crowd. The riot eventually
died out that night.
The next morning, a community meeting was held at Watts to help de-escalate the situation.
This did not help as the meeting became the center of attention for residence’s complaints
against police and the government. At one point, a man or teenager went up on stage
and claimed that rioters were going to attack the white neighbourhoods of L.A. This claim
was broadcasted live on television and radio.
Later that day, 7,000 people took to the streets, as the riot spread from Watts to the surrounding
South L.A neighborhoods, leading rioters to clash with police. Crowds set buildings on
fire, looted stores, where they manage to steal weapons and harrassed firefighters,
stopping them from putting out the flames. By the end of the day, 75 people were injured,
13 of which were police officers and a dozen buildings were destroyed along Avalon Boulevard.
The riot continue the next morning, spreading into more neighbourhood and growing more and
more violent. Shootouts broke out on the streets of L.A between police and rioters. The Southeast
neighbourhoods of LA resembled a warzone. The LAPD finally requested the help of the
National Guard.
The following morning, 14,000 national guardsmen and 2,000 police poured into Watts and the
surrounding neighbourhoods. They conducted raids, helped de-escalate the situation and
cooperated with fire fighters to salvage any building that hadn’t burnt down complete.
Curfew was called. And the next day, on August 16, 1965, the Watts Riots officially ended.
In the end, 34 were dead, 1,032 were injured and almost 3,500 people were arrested for
violence, burglary and theft. Out of the 34 deaths, 26 were caused by the LAPD and were
deemed justifiable. Soon after, a commision was set up to investigate what caused the
riot and how to prevent another one. They deemed that the government should fund programs
to improve schools, employment, housing, healthcare and police relations in the South Los Angeles
Areas. They believed that the riot was caused by frustrations local residents felt about
their environment. Frustrations about the lack of opportunities and the apparent unfairness
of being born in a neighbourhood that the government paid no attention to.
In the grand scale of things, the Watts riots might not have had the biggest impact or hold
much importance to many. But, it was a part of the many riots and protests in the 60s
that made up the Civil Rights movement. A movement that might have officially ended
more than 40 years ago, but still lives on today in the form of other movements. Movements
fighting against the same issue of police brutality and systemic racism.
More recently, there was the Black lives matter movement. A movement started after the shooting
of unarmed Micheal Brown and the unlawful killing of Eric Garner, both at the hands
of the police. This movement has since grown further in size as more and more incidences
of police brutality and abuse of power surfaces.
I don’t know what’s going to happen and I certainly can’t predict the future. But
I do hope that by the end of all of this, that the work of Rosa Park, Malcolm X, Martin
Luthur King jr and countless others who gave their souls and lives, will lead to a world
where police brutality isn’t an issue, where a citizen cannot be unlawfully kill, where
an unarmed person will not be shot and where systematic racism does not exist.
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