On this day in 1943, 200 white sailors in the U.S. Navy headed to East Los Angeles and began to attack Latino and black children and adults wearing zoot suits. They clubbed youths and any adults who tried to stop them, stripped the boys of their zoot suits and burned their clothes in a pile. Over the next few days, thousands of servicemen joined the attacks across the US, and were praised by the press, while police arrested the victims of the attacks, rather than the perpetrators and the LA city council even tried to ban the wearing of the suits. Within weeks Detroit exploded in its worst ever race riots. Zoot suits at the time were a symbol of primarily black and Mexican working class pride, defiance and rebellion.
This is a history of the riots: https://libcom.org/history/zoot-suit-rebellion
Pictured: Chicana zoot wearers our arrested
via Working Class History
Categories: Anarchist images