Author Topic: Remembering Watts 40 Years Later  (Read 109 times)

mrtonguetwista

Remembering Watts 40 Years Later
« on: August 15, 2005, 06:28:02 PM »
It was a hot summer night 40 years ago when an urban uprising was just beginning to be quelled in South Central Los Angeles, a six-day event that led to 34 deaths, more than 1,000 injuries and over $40 million in property damage.

Now referred to as the Watts Riots of 1965, the events that began Aug. 11 of that year were an amalgam of looting, Molotov cocktails, slogans of "Burn, baby burn!" and media soundbites that described Watts as "an anarchy-ridden area" where police were "out-manned and out-gunned."

For many of those remembering the events that transpired in Watts 40 years ago, the anniversary marks a significant point in the history of the civil rights movement, when the people of Watts responded to the socioeconomic inequality and persistent trend of police brutality in their neighborhoods with cries of defiance.

One year after the landmark introduction of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, similar uprisings were occurring all over the United States as mainly urban populations responded to continuing impoverishment, disparity and racial discrimination.

Watts was the largest and costliest that summer, with other uprisings occurring in Detroit and Newark, N.J.

And yet while lessons were learned and attempts at alleviating the situation were made, much remains the same in Watts today, according to the UCLA faculty, staff and students who commemorated the events last week at various talks and discussions.

"For me to say nothing has changed would be wrong, but it's not nearly enough. ... If people think the era of massive violence is over, they better think that over carefully. If it were to happen in the near future, it would not surprise me," said Paul Von Blum, a senior lecturer for the interdepartmental program for Afro-American studies at UCLA.



A spark becomes a flame

In the 1960s Watts was one of the larger communities within Los Angeles, with two-thirds of its population being black. It was also a population that was steadily growing.

W.E.B. Dubois, a prolific black author and civil rights leader, was impressed with the overall make-up and economic potential of the metropolis when he visited Los Angeles in 1964, calling the city a "mecca."

It was against this backdrop that an influx of blacks from the Deep South arrived, said Brenda Stevenson, chair of the Afro-American studies program.

"But they soon found out it was not so fabulous. The police were thought of as a terroristic force. The LAPD would drive their cars on the sidewalks. ... There was a sense of disconnect between African Americans and the justice system," Stevenson said.

It was because of this disenchantment with law enforcement and the fact that over one-third of the adults in the neighborhood were unemployed that the riots began.

On the night of Aug. 11, a white California Highway Patrol officer pulled-over Marquette Frye, a young black man, at the corner of 116th Street and Avalon Boulevard in Watts. Suspecting that Frye had been driving under the influence, the simple stop soon escalated.

As a crowd of more than 200 gathered to witness the confrontation, Frye's mother entered the scene in an attempt to calm the situation. In the face of his mother's questioning, Frye became more belligerent and another police officer who had arrived hit Frye with a bat.

At that moment, what Stevenson calls "the spark moment," chaos ensued, and while Frye and his mother were taken to a local police station, the rioting began.

What resulted was over 25,000 residents actively participating in looting, burning, fighting, throwing rocks and shooting, and the need for over 1,000 men of the 40th Division of the National Guard to restore calm.

In the 40 years since then, scholars and community leaders alike have been studying the causes of those six lawless days in Watts.

"People have to believe in their society. If you don't believe in the basic fairness of a society, why would you settle? ... Here the people said, 'We don't consent to adhere to the laws,'" said Darnell Hunt, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA.



Riot or revolution?

At the time, the riots were portrayed by the media and city officials as senseless and thoughtless. But later surveys showed that 62 percent of the residents saw the rioting as a form of political protest and 42 percent even believed they were steeped in revolutionary rhetoric, Hunt said.

The political nature of the uprising is also one of the many reasons some prefer to call it the "Watts Rebellion" or "Watts Revolt," akin in its purpose to revolutionary events such as the Boston Tea Party.

"Rebellions always have a criminal component. ... Just because some people were just there to steal doesn't mean it wasn't political," Stevenson said.

Today, scholars tend to agree that the events of that summer were largely a political response, as the people of Watts realized the general inequality of the law as applied to them.

While a student at UC Berkeley, Von Blum spent the summer of 1964 working for the Congress of Racial Equality in Watts and witnessed the situation first-hand.

"There was a lot of tension a year before the uprising. Almost everywhere I went I encountered people with stories of police harassment and brutality. There was lots of discussion about discrimination generally. So when a year later it exploded, I wasn't even remotely surprised," Von Blum said.

In an attempt to respond to the frustrations of the Watts residents, a number of institutions were created soon after the riots, including the Watts Summer Games and the King/Drew Medical Center.

But even such concrete examples of the change that was instituted have fizzled over the years. Last year it was revealed that the King/Drew Medical Center was riddled with corruption and inefficiency, and as a result the hospital lost numerous accreditations.

Now the King/Drew Medical Center is close to being completely shut down, leaving Watts and surrounding neighborhoods without a hospital.

Throughout the month of August and September, the UCLA Film and Television Archive Research and Study Center at Powell Library will have available two news documentaries of the Watts uprisings, including the highly acclaimed "Hell in the City of Angels." Both selections are free and available to the public on a walk-in basis.

 

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Re: Remembering Watts 40 Years Later
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2005, 11:24:09 PM »
Yeah I`ve seen clips of that...it was crazy