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Los Angeles Geopolitics and the Zoot Suit Riot, 1943

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Eduardo Obregón Pagán
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In the early evening of 3 June 1943, just as the sun set over a city darkened by a blackout, about 50 sailors stationed at the Naval Reserve Training School in Los Angeles stormed through the mostly Mexican American neighborhoods that lay between the school andd owntown L.A. Their actions that night, which consistedm ostly of stripping zoot suits off young civilian men, set off more than a week of rioting as thousands of military personnel poured into Los Angeles from the surrounding bases and attacked anyone wearing zoot suits. The Los Angeles Police Department did nothing to stop the rioting servicemen, claiming that they lacked jurisdictional authority, and instead jailed hundreds of young men (mostly Mexican American but also black and white) “for their own protection.” It was not until the Army and Navy commanders in southern California took seriously the difference between “revelry” and riot and canceled military leave that the rioting stopped.

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Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 24 , Issue 1: Special Issue: The Working Classes and Urban Public Space , spring 2000 , pp. 223 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2000 

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References

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