The Zoot Suit Riots – June 1943
80th Anniversary Special
With Eduardo Obregón Pagán
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 and downtown L.A. Their actions that night, which consisted mostly 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.
Eduardo Obregón Pagán is the Bob Stump Endowed Professor of History at Arizona State University, and one of the hosts of the PBS popular series History Detectives. He is a frequent guest lecturer on topics such as American West, Latinos in the United States, American youth subculture and American religion.
Buy the book by Eduardo Obregón Pagán
Murder At The Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, And Riot In Wartime L.A
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