Case Study 1: the Zoot Suit Riots

CASE STUDY 1: THE ZOOT SUIT RIOTS

June 1943, Los Angeles

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As the Zoot Suit became popular among minority communities, the clothes garnered a racist reputation and were often view as gang members and delinquents. Many servicemen viewed zoot-suit wearers as World War II draft dodgers. The Los Angeles press was hostile to zoot suiters, many of them Mexican American young people. The newspapers depicted them as hoodlums. With the nation at war, headlines about zoot suiters shared column space with articles on Allied advances in Europe, food shortages at home, and advertisements urging American victory.

The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of violent racial attacks during June 3-8, 1943 from mobs of US Servicemen, off-duty police officers, and civilians on young Latinos and other minorities, following the murder of a young Latino man, known as the Sleepy Lagoon Murder. The Los Angeles City Council issued a ban on zoot suits the following day. Amazingly, no one was killed during the weeklong riot, but it wasn’t the last outburst of zoot suit-related racial violence.

Latin America Group Probes Street Fights
Fact-Finding Committee to Delve Into Causes

of Brawls Between Servicemen, Gangs

Los Angeles Examiner
June 8, 1943

Alarmed at the recent outbreak of street fights between so-called zoot suit gangs and men of the armed forces, the Citizens’ Committee for Latin American Youth yesterday launched an extensive investigation of the situation and will report its findings to the press and public.

…The committee appointed several months ago by the supervisors to investigate relations among Latin Americans in Los Angeles County was told by various spokesmen for the Mexican community that only a small percentage of zoot suiters are trouble makers and that it is regrettable they should bring the entire Mexican population into ill repute…

Discussion Questions

How are the Zoot Suit wearers characterized in the story? What about the military men?

Are there indications in the story that provide clues about who the audience was?

What similarities and differences do you notice between the Zoot Suit article and news coverage of BLM protests this past summer?

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