The Watts riots of 1965 provided the foundation for the Rodney King riots
of 1992. The Watts riots is now recognized as one
of the worst civil unrests in the history of Los Angeles, until the 1992 riots.
The riots started as a result of a confrontation between
a black motorist (Marquette Frye) and
white police officers in an L.A. neighborhood called Watts. At the start of the Watts riots, a community meeting was held, that turned into an explosion
of complaints about the L.A.P.D and government treatment of people of color in the
past. To
most of the black residents in the neighborhood, the message of the riots was
clear—the violence was a result of specific grievances like police injustice
and poverty. They also felt that the unrest could have stemmed from bottled-up
frustrations: black people were, and are still, dissatisfied with the living
conditions and limited opportunities they are given.
During the Watts riots, in the newspaper headlines from the L.A. Times, attached
below, the police were shown as victims, while the rioters were depicted as the
violent enemy. One headline reads, “Police and Motorists attacked”. The
motorists in the title does not include Marquette
Frye, but instead refers to white motorists who were attacked during the riots.
Another headline reads, “Negro Riots Rage On”. Articles like these forces the
blame of civil unrest on a certain group of people, instead of focusing on and
addressing the many injustices people of color face.
The Watts riots were an important turning point in L.A.'s Civil Rights Movement. After
the riots, several suggestions were made
that would improve the community, such as emergency
literacy programs, improved police-community ties, increased low-income
housing, and upgraded healthcare services. However, most of these suggestions
were never carried out. In
addition, more than half a century later, police brutality
remains a huge issue in the U.S. There have been
several cases in recent years of black people dying from police brutality. These
tragic incidents remind us of tensions around policing, race, and violence that
have been prevalent for decades, and act as a bleak
reminder that many racial issues remain unresolved.
Newspapers:
Source (Article):
-Anjali Dileep
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