Rioting in Watts

August 11 marked the 45th anniversary of the Watts riots of South Central Los Angeles. Unfortunately, many of the conditions that sparked the riots have not been addressed to this day.

With the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, race relations seemed to be headed in the right direction.

However, states acted to circumvent the new federal law, including California. Proposition 14 moved to block the fair housing section of the Act. This created anger and a feeling of injustice within the inner cities that ultimately erupted into the greatest example of racial tension America had seen.

The incident was triggered when a Los Angeles police officer pulled over motorist Marquette Frye and his brother Ronald. The officer suspected Marquette of drunk driving. While officers questioned them, a crowd of onlookers had begun to form.

When Rena Frye, the boy's mother showed up, a struggle ensued which led to the arrest of all three members of the Frye family. More officers had arrived on the scene and had hit the brothers with their batons. The crowd had grown and by this point had become angry.

After the police left the scene, the crowd and tension escalated and sparked the riots, which lasted six days. The damage included more than 30 deaths, more than 1,000 wounded, and nearly $100 million in property destruction.

After the Watts Riots, then Governor Pat Brown (now the CA Attorney General) named John McCone to head a commission to study the riots. The report issued by the Commission concluded that the riots weren't the act of thugs, but rather symptomatic of much deeper problems: the high jobless rate in the inner city, poor housing, and bad schools. Although the problems were clearly pointed out in the report, no great effort was made to address them, or to rebuild what had been destroyed in the riots.

Have your students investigate the reasons why the Watts riots occurred and what was done then and thereafter to address these causal factors. Assign students to write a report of at least 150 words or a presentation of at least two minutes and seven slides. Use the pathfinder provided below to save time.

The report should cite at least four resources and address the following essential questions for critical thinking (you can add or substitute others):

• What were some of the causes of racial tension that led to the Watts riots of 1965?
• What did Los Angeles and the state do to address the causal factors?
• What are conditions in Watts today: better—why or why not?
• How does Watts mirror other cities who may have similar conditions that could lead to rioting?
• What recommendations would you make to mayors and governors to address the causal factors that create the conditions for rioting?

Select Topic Search > Type "Riots AND Watts-Los Angeles CA" in the Search box > Click "Riots AND Watts-Los Angeles CA."

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