Danver Steven L. (Edited). Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History: An Encyclopedia (ENG)

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Zoot Suit Riots (1942)

This racial outbreak occurred in Los Angeles in June 1943. Thousands of white

soldiers, sailors, and marines attacked male Mexican American teenagers. The

disorders grew out of wartime tensions between servicemen and young Hispanics

and African Americans, particularly those youths who wore “zoot suits”—a highly

stylized form of dress that embodied an identity at odds with social, racial, and

gender norms.

These riots had roots in long-standing racial prejudices held by whites in

Southern California and the American Southwest toward Mexican immigrants,

as well as African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities. During the

ﬁrst half of the 20th century, tensions between whites and Mexican immigrants

intensiﬁed as Mexicans poured over the border in search of economic opportunity

and to escape political turmoil in their own country growing out of the 1910–1920

revolution. Racial tension was further exacerbated ﬁrst by the Great Depression

and, later, by the rapid ec onomic, social, and demogra phic changes brought on

by the United States’ entry into World War II and the ensuing war effort.

After 1900, many settled in Los Angeles, whic h, by the end of the 1920s, was

home to the l argest Mexican immigrant community in the United S tates. Estab-

lished whites viewed the new arrivals as a mixed blessing. Businesses and produce

growers welcomed the cheap labor. On the other hand, the growing Mexican pres-

ence presented a “problem” in that they came from a different culture and repre-

sented a potential threat to the established social and racial order and to

prevailing cultural and political norms. Mexicans were frequently stereotyped as

“lazy,” prone to criminality, and open to blandishments from “subversive” ele-

ments such as labor unions and other left-wing political organizations.

Whites were divided on how to respond. The majority of white business and

political leaders favored “Americanization” programs. Many nativists, however,

wanted to restrict or end Mexican immigration and waged a prolonged and fre-

quently strident campaign against unrestricted immigration—a c ampaign that

gained momentum during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Whatever their

views on Mexican immigration, most whites agre ed on the need to maintain the

established racial and socioeconomic order. Mexican Americans faced discrimina-

tion in jobs, housing, and education. They l ived in poverty and were f orced into

neighborhoods where there was only substandard housing and schools.

869

Moreover, they were subject to hostility from law enforcement. Both the

Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Police

viewed Mexican Americans with suspicion. Both senior police leade rs and rank

and ﬁle ofﬁcers saw Mexicans as a threat to the established order and more prone

to criminality. The emergence of the “Zoot” culture among young Mexican

Americans further inﬂamed police hostility as police (along with the wider white

community) saw the zoot suit as a symbol of gang associations and juvenile

delinquency.

In the midst of this hostile society, Mexican immigrants sought to construct

their own identity. Their struggle was inﬂuence d by the experience of the 1930s.

The Depression forced many to rethink remaining in the United States. The

contraction in the job market was the main consideration, but the intense deporta-

tion and repatriation launched by white authorities unsettled many immigrants.

Between 192 8 and 1940, nearly a third of Los Angeles’s Mexican population

returned to Mexico.

Those who remained faced a fragile socioeconomic position. Immigrant chil-

dren who reached adolescence and maturity in the lat e 1930s and early 1940s

faced discrimination, police harassment, and racist agitation in the mainstream

870 Zoot Suit Riots (1942)

Mexican Americans line up outside a Los Angeles jail en route to court after the Zoot Suit

Riots, June 9, 1943. (Library of Congress)

media. Many became active in la bor unions and civil rights organizations. Many

teenagers grew increasingly estranged from wider society. Referring to themselves

as Pachucos, they adopted the zoot suits—broad-brimmed hats, knee-length

jackets with broad shoulders, brightly colored shirts, and pleated pa nts with

balloon-like legs—as a gesture of deﬁance and a means to assert their own mascu-

linity. Zoot suiters embraced a hipster culture that involved jazz clubs and a

language that set them apart from the wider culture.

Racial tensions in Southern California and Los Angeles were further augmented

by wartime economic and demographic change. Particularly signiﬁcant was the

inﬂux of servicemen as Southern California became a major staging area for oper-

ations in the Paciﬁc War. In addition, thousands of migrating workers poured into

the area seeking jobs in the burgeoning aircraft and ship ma nufacturing sectors.

The large numbers of military bases in the Los Angeles area meant that, at any

given time, thousands of soldiers, sailors, and marines were in Los Angeles either

on duty or leave. Tensions between white members of the armed forces and young

Mexican Americans and African Americans were the central c ause of the Zoot

Suit Riots.

The conﬂict between servicemen and zoot suiters had cultural, racial, and gen-

dered roots. The millions of military men arriving in Southern California were, in

many cases, from small towns in the South, Midwest, and West, where prevailing

conservative views on race and culture predisposed them to hostility toward the

Zoot culture. Adding to their hostility toward the zoot suiters was the pent-up frus-

tration of young men training to ﬁght a racial enemy (the Japanese) in the Paciﬁc,

yet were stationed in a city where a visible group of minority youths were identi-

ﬁed as alien and subversive.

Cultural tensions between servicemen and zoot suiters, although aggravated by

wartime conditions, predated the war years. In the middle and late 1930s, when the

Zoot culture was emerging, brawls and shouting matches occurred frequently. As

wartime changes took hold, these clashes escalated in both frequency and

violence. Already predisposed to hostility toward Hispanics and blacks, white

servicemen viewed zoot suiters as a threat to the established order and to tradi-

tional white conceptions of masculinity.

Geographic and gender issues inﬂamed tensions even further. The proximity of

a number of military installations in Los Angeles to Mexican American neighbor-

hoods maximized the chances for confrontation. The Naval Reserve Armory in

Chavez Ravine, the site of a large school for naval radiomen, the army base at Fort

MacArthur, and the port facility at Terminal Island were all located near minority

areas. The main thoroughfares of Figueroa Boulevard, Main Street, Temple Street,

and Alpine Street all passed near the large Hispanic neighborhood in Boyle

Heights and were all used by sailors stationed at the Naval Reserve Armory to

Zoot Suit Riots (1942) 871

go t o downtown Los Angeles on liberty. They were meeting g rounds between

young civilians and members of the armed forces. With the high level of animosity

between the two groups, violence was inevitable.

Competition for female companionship was a ﬂash point. Servicemen viewed

nonconforming Hispanics and blacks as a threat to white women. They measured

their own masculinity by their ability to protect their women and viewed any

advances by zoot suiters as a challenge that had t o be met with violence. The

weeks before the riots saw a rising number of complaints from white sailors to

the naval authorities and police concerning insults a nd threats by Hispanic teen-

agers toward white women. Similarly, zoot suiters, along with many adult

Mexican Americans, resented servicemen seeking the company of young Hispanic

women, seeing these advances as challenges to their own masculinity. The two

groups virtually mirrored each other. Each incited violence against the other to

assert their own racial and gender identities to the disadvantage of the other.

Racial fe elings among white Angelinos, servicemen, and Mexican A mericans

further escalated with the August 1942 murder of a young Mexican American ,

Jose Diaz, by the s uspected “38th Street Gang” near Sleepy Lagoon. Amid

hysterical newspaper commentaries about the threat of juvenile delinquency and

subversion, police rounded up 600, mostly Mexican American teenagers. Eventu-

ally, 17 reputed gang members were tried and convicted of the murder amid rumors

in the Hispanic communities about police brutality, evidence tampering, and pros-

ecutorial misconduct. The Sleepy Lagoon trial polarized the white and Mexican

American communities to the point where a confrontation was unavoidable.

In the highly charged atmosphere that prevailed by Jun e 1943, the presence of

any large group of young men in zoot suits near a military installation or near a

group o f servicemen was all the evidence members of the military (as well as

police and civilian whites) needed to conﬁrm that the zoot suiters were looki ng

for trouble. The riot began during the evening of Thursday, June 3, with a series

of confrontations in East Los Angeles near the Chavez Ravine barracks. A group

of 11 white sailors walking along Main Street were jumped (they later claimed)

by a gang of at least 35 zoot suiters. At the same time, a group of 16 sailors exiting

a bus on Figueroa Avenue were approached by young men in zoot suits who hurled

insults (including fou l language and Nazi salutes) and threatened the sailors with

bodily harm. Police called to the sce ne on Main Street arrested a number of zoot

suiters but reported no serious injuries on either side.

Nevertheless, the violence quickly intensiﬁed. Rumors reaching the Naval

Reserve Armory barracks that several of their comrades had been seriously injured

galvanized the sailors to react. About two hours after the original confrontations, a

group of 50 sailors, carrying baseball bats and other makeshift weapons they could

smuggle p ast the gate guards and the Shore Patrol, burst out of the armory and

872 Zoot Suit Riots (1942)

started toward downtown Los Angeles looking to chances to retaliate against any

young Mexic an American they could ﬁnd. Th e mob, which grew as i t moved up

toward Alpine Street, searched the bars and restaurants for zoot suiters. They

broke into the Carmen Theater and roam ed the aisles where they found their ﬁrst

victims, most of them 12- and 13-year-old boys who happened to be wearing the

wrong clothes at the wrong time. Ignoring protests from other civilians, the sailors

beat the boys, stripping them of their clothes and burning the suits in a pile outside.

The sailors roamed the streets around Figueroa for most of the night but had no

further success ﬁnding zoot suiters. Fortunately, a large number of Mexican

American youths had been in a meeting with police community relations represen-

tatives, discussing ways to prevent or reduce juvenile delinquency.

The violence escalated as more sailors, returning from liberty in downtown Los

Angeles and incited by rumors that zoot suiters were attacking sailors, joined the

rioters. They co rdoned off city blocks around Figueroa and Main s treet s, raiding

places of business, dance halls, and bars looking for Mexican American youths

wearing the wrong clothes. Through all of the initial violence, neither the Los

Angeles Police nor the military authorities did anything to halt the mobs. Indeed,

many white civilians (including off-duty police ofﬁcers in civilian clothes) were

helping the rioting sailors.

Both the city and military leadership seriously underestimated the signiﬁcance

of the June 3 disturbances and took no action to keep the violence from spreading.

As a result, the servicemen continued their rampage on the following night, June 4,

but with a new focus. Instead of continuing to terrorize the area between the

armory and downtown Los Angeles, they piled into every taxi they could hire

and carried their depredations into areas deep into East Los Angeles where few,

if any confrontations had occurred befor e the rioting began. As b efore, they

concentrated on known zoot-suiter hangouts. When they found you ng Mexican

Americans, they beat them, tearing off and burning their clothing.

On Saturday, the navy took the ﬁrst feeble steps toward trying to contain the

riots when the commanding ofﬁcer of the Naval Training School, Commander

Martin Dickin son, called th e men to quarters and warned them that the navy did

not condone attacks on civilians. Dickinson announced that he would post a night

patrol along the streets leading to the armory to protect sailors returning from lib-

erty. He did not cancel liberty for the base as a whole nor did he initiate any action

against suspected instigators o f the disorders. His inaction virtually guaranteed

that the violence would continue.

Rumors about zoot-suited gangs attacking sailors continued to circulate among

armory personnel and throug hout military installations in Los Angeles and the

Southern California area. Despite the lack of actual attacks from civilian youth s,

servicemen continued their rampage throughout Los Angeles for a third night,

Zoot Suit Riots (1942) 873

Saturday, June 5, attacking anyone who even remotely resembled the imagined

zoot-suited gangster. Scores of servicemen marched down the streets of downtown

Los Angeles confronting everyone they saw in a zoot suit. Los Angeles police

were out in full force but, typically, they arre sted only Mexican American teen-

agers, purportedly for their own prote ction or to prevent reprisal attacks on

servicemen.

Sunday, June 6, was a day of relative quiet, raising hopes among the authorities

that the rioting would halt of its own accord, but those hopes proved to be

unfounded. The hostility and fear generated by three days of violence had spilled

over i nto the wider military and civilian c ommunities, even those not directly

involved in the original disorders. That following Monday night, June 7, pr oved

to be the worst night of riots. Thousands of white soldiers, sailors, and marines

converged on Los Angeles f rom bases in San Diego, El Toro, and Long Beach.

They concentrated near Chavez Ravine on First Street between Main and Central.

They were joined by white civilians eager to rid Los Angeles of the zoot

suiters. The mob split into two groups: one m oved southward along Central

Avenue toward the predominately AfricanAmericanareaofWatts;theother

plunged into the mainly Mexican American neighborhoods of East Los Angeles.

While polic e watched, the mob stopped st reetcars on East First Street and tore

through bars, shops, penny arcades, and other known teenage hangouts looking

for zoot suiters. The mob did not break up until 11:30.

For all intents and purposes, the rioting ended on Jun e 8. Senior military ofﬁ-

cials, concerning about negative publicity, placed Los Angeles off limits to all

military personnel. Military a uthorities sent shore patrol and mi litary police into

downtown Los Angeles with orders to arrest any disorderly servicemen. The

LAPD called in all o ff-duty ofﬁcers and auxiliaries for riot detail. Occasional

ﬂare-ups p ersisted for another week, but this belated joint action by military and

civil authorities quelled the worst of the violence. In the end, reports estimated that

94 civilians and 18 ser vicemen had sustained serious injuries. There had been no

deaths. Property damage was minimal. The LAPD arreste d 94 civilians and only

2 servicemen. That the riots spread as far and lasted as long as they did reﬂected

badly on the indifference and apathy of both the military and civilian leadership .

Their failure to act quickly to stop the violence on the ﬁrst night led to unnecessary

violence and suffering.

The small number of casualties reﬂects both the nature of the riot and of the par-

ties involved. For a week, military men targeted civilian youths wearing the hated

zoot suit, in many instances humiliating their adversaries and stripping them of

their clothes and identities. In proportion to the large numbers of servicemen

involved, however, the number of civilian injuries were small. The young Mexican

American civilians proved difﬁcult to catch. They knew the streets and alleys

874 Zoot Suit Riots (1942)

in East Los Angeles far better than armed forces members who were only tempo-

rarily stationed in the city or who had come in to support their comrades. The

actions by white servicemen suggest that they were more interested in humiliating

their Pachuco adversaries than in injuring them. The riots reﬂected their feelings

that they were defending their own values and masculinity against threats and

insults from an alien and subversive culture. The ultimate cause was the clash of

gender, racial, and racial identities in a highly charged wartime setting.

The deeper signiﬁcance of the Zoot Suit Riots lies in the nature of wartime soci-

ety and of the wider American social and cultural order. The Zoot Suit Riots, along

with a rash of other racial outbreaks in the United States in 1943, were a clear

manifestation of the hostility of established society to any attempt by minorities

to assert their own identities. The outcome led to wide r mobilization of Mexican

Americans and African Americans to protect and widen their civil rights and to a

movement in wider society for self-examination. Americans were beginning to

understand the inconsistency between ﬁghting for democracy overseas while still

denying it to many minorities at home.

—Walter F. Bell

See also all entries under P ueblo Revolt (1680); Pima Revolt (1751); B ear Flag Revolt

(1846); Plan de San Diego (1915–1916); Day without an Immigra nt (2006).