With the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it seemed as if race relations were finally moving towards the goal of civil liberty, and were finally getting somewhere. However, in an effort to bypass and disregard this new law, states made their own propositions, like California's Proposition 14, which essentially nullified the fair housing section of the Civil Rights Act. As a result, there were heightened tensions in the inner cities, and it eventually culminated into the Watts Riots, lasting for six days, and caused more than forty million dollars of damages, proving to be the most costly, and most widespread violent rebellion of the Civil Rights era.
The riots began when the racial tensions within the predominantly black Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles reached a breaking point. A young African American motorist named Marquette Frye was pulled over and arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence, but the arrest scene caught the attention of other citizens, and a crowd gathered. The strained racial tensions between the officers and the crowd eventually broke into violence. The flame was then passed to erupt into a large riot in the commercial section of the neighborhood, and the riots lasted for several days, wrecking cars, looting stores, etc.
In an effort to bring an end to all of the chaos, 14,000 California National Guard troops were sent to South Los Angeles in an attempt to "restore public order." In the aftermath, there were thirty four people dead, along with over a thousand injured, and four thousand arrests. The mission of "order" was eventually completed on August 17th.
In hindsight looking back at these riots, a report issued by the Commission of John McCone concluded that the riots were a cause of the deeper problems of the society in impoverished Los Angeles: "the high jobless rate in the inner city, poor housing, and bad schools." However, despite the clear analysis of the problems pointed out in the report, there was still a lack of effort by the city leaders and state officials to implement measure to improve these conditions for African Americans.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/watts-riot-begins
http://www.pbs.org/hueypnewton/times/times_watts.html
http://crdl.usg.edu/events/watts_riots/?Welcome
Andrew I really liked your post about the Watts riot because I did not know much about the civil rights situation after the Civil Rights Bill. I agree with your claim that the city leader and state officials did not do enough to improve these measures. Using the source https://daily.jstor.org/did-the-1965-watts-riots-change-anything/ I learned that people did not just fail to act after realizing that there was a problem after the riots, but the riots actually increased tensions between African-Americans and whites. The source quotes "To the black curfew zone residents, it seems, the message of the riots was clear. A strong majority attributed the violence either to specific grievances like poverty and police mistreatment or to pent-up frustrations. Many thought whites would see it that way too—51 percent of the black sample said whites were more sympathetic to “Negro problems” after the riots. But there they were apparently mistaken. Only a third of the white group said that whites had become any more sympathetic, and 71 percent said the riots had increased the “gap between the races.” This supports your claim and shows that much more must still be done beyond the civil rights act to solve the issue of racism.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, I enjoyed learning about something new while reading your post. What strikes me as interesting is the status of California as opposed to portions of the Civil Rights Act. California as well know it today is very liberal, and we could not imagine the state passing something that would nullify portions of the Civil Rights Act. However, 50 years ago, they did. It is interesting when we reflect on how much globalization and the internet revolution has changed the sociopolitical landscape of our home state. The relatively drastic changes that have shaped the leanings of own state perhaps reflect a nationwide shift in views, away from the conservative, traditional views to more liberal attitudes. However, there is a vast group of the US population that is uncomfortable with the changes that have occurred in recent times, and have taken action to revert these changes. This is most clearly shown in the election of our current president. So, how did California cope with the drastic changes over the past 50, almost 60, years? From the Watts Riots to Women's Movements, California has seen a tremendous shift in attitudes and has survived. What can our state teach the rest of the country? Can the divided sides of the US learn to reconcile their views? Or will the Watts Riots be repeated. Only the future can tell.
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