Opium Pipes & Zoot Suits

    Los Angeles has a long and infamous history of racial tensions and riots, with names like Rodney King and Watts evoking images of burning buildings and armored police. These social upheavals are the most recent in a long history of racial turmoil in the L.A. area.

    Possibly the first "Race riot " in Los Angeles occurred on October 24, 1871, when a white passerby was shot in the cross fire between two Asian gangs near Calle de los Negros a street that had become the center of the city's Chinatown. Within hours of this incident hundreds of whites flocked to this area, breaking down doors and windows, beating and attempting to lynch every Asian the crowd could get their hands on. When the smoke had cleared at least 19 Chinese had died and many more were injured. Although the grand jury investigated the melee, only a few spent a short time in jail.

    On the night of June 3, 1943, eleven sailors on shore leave stated that they were attacked by a group of Mexican pachucos. In response to this, a group of over 200 uniformed sailors chartered 20 cabs and charged into the heart of the Mexican American community in East Los Angeles. Any zoot suiter was fair game. On this and the following nights, many a zoot suiter was beaten by this mob and stripped of their clothes, their zoot suits, on the spot. Nine sailors were arrested during these disturbances, not one was charged with any crime. On the following nights of June 4th and 5th, the uniformed servicemen (by this time the sailors had been joined by soldiers) again invaded East Los Angeles, marching abreast down the streets, breaking into bars and theaters, and assaulting anyone in their way. Not one was arrested by the Police or the Sheriff. In fact, the servicemen were portrayed in the local press as heroes stemming the tide of the "Mexican Crime Wave." During the nights of June 6th and 7th, these scenes were again repeated. Time Magazine later reported that, "The police practice was to accompany the caravans of soldiers and sailors in police cars, watch the beatings and jail the victims." According to Rudolpho Acuña in Occupied America, "Seventeen-year-old Enrico Herrera, after he was beaten and arrested, spent three hours at a police station, where he was found by his mother, still naked and bleeding. A 12-year-old boy's jaw was broken. Police arrested over 600 Chicano youths without cause and labeled the arrests 'preventive' action. Angelenos cheered on the servicemen and their civilian allies."