| Watts riots | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Ghetto riots of the 1960s | |
 Two buildings on fire on Avalon Boulevard | |
| Date | August 11–16, 1965 |
| Location | |
| Goals | To end mistreatment by the police and to end discrimination in housing, employment, and schooling systems |
| Methods | Widespread rioting, looting, assault, arson, protests, firefights, and property damage |
| Casualties | |
| Death(s) | 34 |
| Injuries | 1,032 |
| Arrested | 3,438 |
The Watts riots, sometimes referred to as the Watts Rebellion or Watts Uprising,[1] took place in the Watts neighborhood and its surrounding areas of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965. The riots were motivated by anger at the racist and abusive practices of the Los Angeles Police Department, as well as grievances over employment discrimination, residential segregation, and poverty in L.A.[2]
On August 11, 1965, Marquette Frye, a 21-year-old African-American man, was pulled over for drunk driving.[3][4][5] After he failed a field sobriety test, officers attempted to arrest him. Marquette resisted arrest, with assistance from his mother, Rena Frye; a physical confrontation ensued in which Marquette was struck in the face with a baton. Meanwhile, a crowd of onlookers had gathered.[3] Rumors spread that the police had kicked a pregnant woman who was present at the scene. Six days of civil unrest followed, motivated in part by allegations of police abuse.[4] Nearly 14,000 members of the California Army National Guard[6] helped suppress the disturbance, which resulted in 34 deaths,[7] as well as over $40 million in property damage.[8][9] It was the city's worst unrest until the Rodney King riots of 1992.
- ^ "Watts Rebellion (Los Angeles) | The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute". kinginstitute.stanford.edu. June 12, 2017. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
- ^ Felker-Kantor, Max (2018). Policing Los Angeles: Race, Resistance, and the Rise of the LAPD. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-4696-4684-8.
- ^ a b Queally, James (July 29, 2015). "Watts Riots: Traffic stop was the spark that ignited days of destruction in L.A." Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
- ^ a b "How Legacy Of The Watts Riot Consumed, Ruined Man's Life". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on July 24, 2018. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
- ^ Dawsey, Darrell (August 19, 1990). "To CHP Officer Who Sparked Riots, It Was Just Another Arrest". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ "Watts Rebellion (Los Angeles)". The Martin Luther King Jr., Research and Education Institute. June 12, 2017. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
- ^ Hinton, Elizabeth (2016). From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America. Harvard University Press. pp. 68–72. ISBN 9780674737235.
- ^ Joshua, Bloom; Martin, Waldo (2016). Black Against Empire: The History And Politics Of The Black Panther Party. University of California Press. p. 30.
- ^ Szymanski, Michael (August 5, 1990). "How Legacy of the Watts Riot Consumed, Ruined Man's Life". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on December 6, 2013. Retrieved June 22, 2013.