The Rodney King Riot happened in Los Angeles in the year of 1992. Rodney King was an African American male who was arrested on charges because of speeding, drunk driving, and refusing to stop his vehicle. Four police officers who have claimed to have witnessed King’s actions such as being high on drugs and was trying to attack them explains why they did what they did. A resident nearby by the name of George Holliday captured about 12 minutes of the attack on film. King was tasered, brutally beaten with side-handled batons, then forced to the ground to lie still which was where he was handcuffed.
In the article “Zoot-Suit Fighting Spreads on Coast” (1943) it discusses the racial tension between sailors and soldiers and the “zoot suits” on the west coast. Zoot Suits were mainly Mexican Americans and some African Americans who wore certain outfits that showed that they opposed these “wartime authorities” on the west coast. Most of the Zoot Suits were young men, some as young as twelve years old. This racial tension eventually turned into the soldiers and zoot suits hating each other and this eventually resulted in a week of rioting where more than 150 people were hurt. During this time in 1943 the US was still fighting a world war, so there was no need for anymore chaos to be going on.
Significant contributing factors that led up to the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943 include the Sleepy Lagoon Murder, false News, and the zoot suits themselves. The Sleepy Lagoon Murder took place in 1942 in rural Los Angeles, in what is now Bell, California. Hank Leyvas and his girlfriend Dora Barrios had been assaulted and severely beaten by an enemy neighborhood. The next day, Hank recruited reinforcement and headed over to the Williams ranch to seek revenge. There, Hank and his gang wreaked havoc on an ongoing birthday party, resulting in the death of an innocent boy named José Díaz.
The “Zoot Suit Riots” were a series of events linked to the Sleepy Lagoon murder case, that took place in Los Angeles California in June 1943. Despite the fact that zoot suits were not only worn by mexican americans during this time, and they were referred to the zoot gangsters. Often throughout this period of time as the city of LA began to grow, Mexican Americans were looked as outsiders in a city that was once built by their ancestors. Although zoot suits were not limited to only a single race I think the name of the event give it a false single sided outlook on the story. Ultimately singling out Mexican Americans during this time, even though the sailors had just as much or even more involvement during the riots.
The Tulsa Race Riot was the destruction of Black Wall Street in 1921, which was caused by an allegation of a white woman accusing a black man of rape. It lasted from May 31st to June 1st. The Tulsa Race Riot caused plenty of damage from “dozens of deaths [and] hundreds of injuries” to the destruction of Black Wall Street leading to unemployment of the black community (Hoberock n. pag.). An estimated property loss was over $2.3 million. This was an important event in our Nation’s history because “it teaches how far hatred [and violence] can go” (Hoberock n. pag.).
Racial tensions in Los Angeles came into the public eye when a gang of sailors beat up a group of Mexican-Americans wearing “zoot suits” in June of 1943. This led to the mass incarceration of these individuals known as “pachucos”. This initial incident was followed by days of violence in which servicemen roamed the Los Angeles area and physically assaulted any Mexican American they found in zoot suit apparel. The following two nights, the attacks progressed and though a few sailors were arrested while others were warned not to proceed in further assaults, word of the rioting spread and more military personnel from other areas of the city joined in as well. These events were preceded by increased racial tension between Mexican-Americans and Anglo Saxons.
This became known as the Sleepy Lagoon murder. “The Zoot Suit riots were a series of uprisings in 1943 that erupted in Los Angeles between white sailors and soldiers stationed throughout the city and Latino youths, who were identifiable by their zoot-suits” (Sanchez). The Pachucos were depicted as delinquents and rebels in the media. This negative portrayal and the increasing anti-Mexican sentiment all set the stage for the Zoot-Suit Riots. These anti-Mexican riots often featured the ritualistic stripping of the zoot suiters.
The Mexican-American War marked an enormous symbolic impact for both nations which changed people’s lives. There’s many similarities and differences between these two countries, the combat that began during 1846 between Mexicans and Americans has brought catastrophe and teared many families apart. The war commenced because Mexico claimed the Nueces River and its northeastern boarder while Americans demanded the Rio Grande River. Overall they had problems with land property, Mexico started the battle first and launch fire on April 25, 1846. This is when all the problems and fight’s begin and how Mexican’s and American’s became great enemies that can’t stand each other.
Whites treated these individuals with disrespect, discrimination, and viewed themselves as superior compared to the inferior chicanos. In the year 1848 Mexico lost in the Mexican American War which made them look powerless and weak to the whites, due to them winning over all of the Mexican Territory. Due to Americans winning the war, all property now belonged to them.
Manifest destiny also affected the relationship with Mexico. Several factors led to the Mexican- American War in 1846. The factors were that the U.S citizens were moving into California and Mexico. Since there were many revolutions happening in Mexico throughout this time period the Mexican government was not able to protect the U.S citizens in this region. Another factor was that Mexico was upset that Texas declared independence from them and then the U. S annexed Texas in 1845.
A long-term cause of the the Mexican War of Independence, was the strict racial divide of the country, very similar to other Latin American countries. They lived with natives
Thesis From the mid 1910s to the early 1960s there were many riots that occured, because of racial tensions built up between the the whites and the blacks world wide. Coming from Will Brown being accused of rapping a young white girl, and to Eugene Williams having rocks thrown at him causing him to drown. Segregation at this time was unjustified due to racism still being heavily considered as the right thing to do. These riots caused the United States to be even more segregated, due to unequal rights and no laws being created at the time to help and protect African Americans. During these riots there were cases of police brutality and whites being able to do whatever they choose to do, because they felt as if it was a justified reason to stop the African Americans from rioting.
In Mark Bauerlein’s, Negrophobia: A Race Riot in Atlanta, 1906, the political and social events leading to the riot are analyzed. The center of events took place around and inside Atlanta in the early 1900’s. The riot broke out on the evening of September 22, 1906. Prior to the riot in 1906, elections were being held for a new Georgia governor. Bauerlein organizes his book in chronological order to effectively recount the events that led to the riot.
One historic example of racial bias in the police force is Dr.King 's march from Selma. In Marion, Alabama on February 18, a group of peaceful demonstrators were attacked by white segregationists. During this attack one of the younger demonstrators, Jimmie Lee Jackson, was killed by a state trooper. In response, Dr Martin Luther King led a 54 mile march early in 1965 in Montgomery, Alabama from Selma that lasted five days to the capital where many oppressed black citizens had been campaigning for voting rights including, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). On Sunday, March 7, 1965 protesters got ready to go to Montgomery but Alabama state police officers with weapons
In 1943 the suit zoot riots occurred, this is the event where “a mob of U.S. servicemen took to the streets in taxicabs and began attacking Latinos and stripping them of their suits”. In the local papers it was made seem like the racial attacks were a vigilante respond to an immigrant crime wave and police would mostly only arrest the Latinos who fought back. These riots demonstrates how unfair the law enforcement was to the Latinos being attacked and how badly Latinos were treated by their peers. This type of mistreatment and discrimination towards them was not uncommon In the 1900s, in fact latinos were heavily discriminated against in the 1900s.
