The Watts Riots: 40 Years Later

This week marks the 40th anniversay of the Watts Riots in Los Angeles. The Riots were a monumental event not only for this city, but also for the nation, as they reflected the ongoing battle for civil rights and presaged several other large-scale riots that would ravage many other cities in the "long, hot summers" of the late 1960's.

Surprising though it may seem, I have become intimately familiar with Watts, a part of the incorporated City of Los Angeles. For nearly four years, I've worked as a Zoning Enforcement Officer in South Los Angeles; my primary field area in this period has been the unincorporated community of Florence-Firestone, which is directly north of Watts. I have spent a lot of time in Watts and its immediate environs and therefore feel compelled to write a blogicle about the Riots, its effects, and Watts today.

A Brief History of Watts to 1965

Watts began as a labor camp for the Pacific Electric Railway (the long-defunct interurban transit system affectionately known as the "Big Red Cars") in the early 1900's. The character of the community was decidedly working-class from the beginning and included working people of many different ethnicities and backgrounds. Watts, located on the rural southern fringe of the nascent Los Angeles metropolis, was incorporated as an independent municipality in 1907.

In the 1920's, Los Angeles was in the midst of a growth spurt, and the City of L.A.'s boundaries had grown to the south to encompass the harbor at San Pedro. In 1926, the City annexed Watts and it ceased to be an independent municipality. Watts included a mix of racial groups (Whites, Blacks, Mexicans, and Japanese were all well-represented) at a time when most of the City's residential areas were still highly segregated. Some have speculated that the City may have been motivated to annex Watts to forestall the creation of an independent political base for minority groups within the metropolis.

Watts, though still a relatively young, suburban community, was considered a "slum" by City officials as early as the late 1930's. The "working class" model of suburbia included very small building lots (25 feet wide instead of the more typical 50 feet), crude owner-built dwellings, and agricultural uses (many people fed their families by raising crops and animals in their back yards). For these reasons, Watts was considered shabby in comparison to the more prosperous suburbs of Hollywood and West Los Angeles. In 1937, the U.S. Congress passed a Housing Act that allowed cities to construct and operate "public housing," which could entail "slum clearance," i.e. the "taking" of "blighted" properties through eminent domain in order to replace them with new public housing units. Not surprisingly, the City targeted large swaths of Watts for slum clearance and massive public housing developments.

Under the aegis of the 1937 Housing Act, two public housing projects were constructed in Watts: Avalon Gardens (164 units) and Hacienda Village (184 units). A second Housing Act was passed by Congress in 1949, allowing for the development of three more projects, all substantially larger: Jordan Downs (700 units), Nickerson Gardens (1,110 units) and Imperial Courts (498 units). Watts's housing projects were built as two-story apartment buildings with Modern architecture linked by shared courtyards, very different from the clusters of huge towers built in other cities, but they still had a transfiguring effect on the community. The resultant heavy concentration of poverty in an environment that did not foster any sense of ownership led to high levels of crime and a sense of isolation and desolation. Indeed, "the projects" became far worse places to live than the "slums" they replaced.

During and after World War II, Watts experienced demographic change. Southern California became one of the hubs of the new "defense industry," creating unprecedented economic prosperity that attracted millions of new residents, including many Black immigrants escaping the misery of the South. "Racial covenants" written into property deeds prevented Blacks from buying homes in most areas of Los Angeles, and the rental market conformed to this deliberate racial segregation. Although racial covenants were declared unconstitutional in 1948, realtors and others prevented Blacks from living in White neighborhoods through a variety of tactics. Therefore, the steady stream of Blacks immigrating to Los Angeles were confined to the few areas they were "allowed" to live in: the South Central district (the historic center of L.A.'s Black community, centering on Central Avenue near Vernon Avenue), unincorporated Florence-Firestone, and Watts. Overcrowding naturally resulted from such conditions. By the time the Riots occurred in 1965, 90% of the population in Watts was Black.

Causes of the Riots

The ostensible cause of the Riots was a police arrest. On the hot summer evening of August 11, 1965, California Highway Patrol Officer Lee Minikus was patrolling the vicinity of Avalon Boulevard and El Segundo Boulevard on a motorcycle and observed motorist Marquette Frye make a wide turn; another motorist pulled up to Minikus and told him that Frye was drunk. Minikus pulled Frye over near Avalon Boulevard and 116th Street, not far from Frye's house. Frye's mother, Rena Price, arrived at the scene shortly thereafter -- while details are sketchy, the combination of a police arrest, intoxication, and family drama led to a volatile situation and Minikus, with assistance from the LAPD, ended up arresting Price, Frye, and Frye's stepbrother Ronald Price, who had been a passenger in the car Frye was driving. A crowd had gathered, watching the whole scene, and felt that the three had been treated unfairly and brutally by the White officers. The crowd failed to disperse, grew larger, and soon began to participate in activities that constitued a "riot."

While the community's perception of police brutality was the flashpoint for the Watts Riots, this issue was only one of many that had angered residents. Overall, the community felt entirely isolated from the larger Los Angeles metropolis, and this sense of isolation bred frustration. Certainly, Blacks faired better in Los Angeles than in the South or in many cities in the East or Upper Midwest, but the city's immense prosperity in the postwar era seemed to have passed them by. Watts -- with its modest bungalows, palm trees, and suburban feel -- was totally unlike the "ghettos" Blacks called home in other cities, but at the same time seemed like a preverse parody of the "California Dream" that had attracted so many people of all races to Los Angeles over the years.

The ill will felt towards the LAPD, then consisting almost entirely of White officers, reflected the larger dissatisfaction with City services in Watts. It seemed nearly every other area of the City was better served. Indeed, the only "improvement" the City had made to the community in recent memory was to bulldoze nearly a third of the community and replace it with the gruesome "projects." The City even tried to have the Watts Towers, a majestic and treasured piece of "folk art" built by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia in his own backyard, condemned and demolished -- luckily, a sympathetic aerospace engineer proved that the structures were sound in 1959, and the Towers remain today as one of the community's greatest assets.

Then as now, the cost of owning and maintaining an automobile was prohibitive for many of the poorer residents of Los Angeles. In times past, this was not a problem in Watts, as (true to its origins) it was a major hub for the Pacific Electric interurban transit system. The last Pacific Electric line, linking Downtown Los Angeles with Long Beach by way of Watts, shut down in 1961 and residents had to rely on bus transit, which was wholly inadequate for the community's needs. It became difficult to travel to Downtown, although it was only about a dozen miles away, and it was nearly impossible to reach the growing aerospace and defense industry clusters in El Segundo, Downey, and the San Fernando Valley. Many residents were essentially confined to Watts for shopping and employment opportunities, which were scarce. The transportation problem was exascerbated by the lack of a hospital and other medical facilities nearby.

Housing remained a major issue. In 1963, the State of California passed the Rumford Fair Housing Act, which stated that property owners and landlords could not deny people housing because of ethnicity, religion, sex, marital status, physical handicap, or familial status, an attempt to end "de facto" housing segregation 15 years after racial covenants had been declared unconstitutional. The California Association of Realtors responded by placing Proposition 14 on the 1964 state ballot, the wording of which stated that the State could not "deny, limit or abridge" the "right" of a person to sell or rent his or her property to anyone he or she chooses, a direct attack on the Rumford Fair Housing Act. Proposition 14 passed with a two-thirds majority, angering many Blacks who desperately wished to escape the overcrowded conditions of Watts but were blocked at nearly every turn. Even within Watts itself, only 34% of the the housing was owner-occupied in 1965, and many properties were owned by people from other parts of the city who charged exorbitant rates because their tenants had nowhere else to go.

Interestingly enough, a lack of affordable and high-quality food in Watts stores was a major point of contention in the months before the Riots. Watts did not contain any of the modern supermarkets commonplace in other L.A. suburbs; instead, residents shopped at stores featuring poor quality (sometimes rancid) meat, produce, and baked goods at inflated prices. Demonstrations were held in front of at least one major grocer earlier in 1965. On the whole, residents felt exploited by their local businesses, the great majority owned by Whites who did not live in the community, and resented their percieved mistreatment by them.

All of the greivances expressed by the people of Watts reflected the larger issues and concerns within the "civil rights movement" that was gaining steam in the United States of the 1960's. Blacks in the U.S. justifiably felt that they weren't given a "fair share" and were excluded from the prosperity and advancement most Americans enjoyed after 1945. Frustration had grown to the boiling point, and something as minor as the arrest of a Black family by White police on a hot evening proved to be a catalyist for a violent expression of civil disobedience.

The Riots and Their Aftermath

The rioting that began on August 11, 1965 lasted a week. Most of the activity occured in Watts, although some other nearby communities were affected. Eventually, the National Guard was called in to quell the rioting and enforce a cordon around a large swath of South Los Angeles in order to prevent its spread.

For the first few days, anarchy seemed to rule the streets of Watts. Vandalism, looting, arson, and violence against police and unsuspecting White motorists were commonplace. The main business drag, 103rd Street, soon became "Charcoal Alley" amid cries of "burn, baby, burn!" Many residents feared for their lives, staying indoors lest they encounter a stray bullet -- besides, the air was full of embers and nearly unbreatheable.

The immediate results were tragic. 34 people, 25 of them Black, were dead and more than 1,000 were injured. 4,000 were arrested. More than 600 buildings were damaged or destroyed, resulting in property damage estimated at between $50 million and $100 million. Watts ended up looking like a battle zone, which in some ways it was.

A series of commissions at the Federal, State, and local level were convened to study the Riots and issue reports and recommendations. Not surprisingly, they concluded that the Riots were not an act of a handful of "hooligans," but a general uprising that included thousands of otherwise law-abiding people. The causes identified were not surprising: housing discrimination, a lack of services, a lack of education and employment opportunities, and an overall sense of isolation and hopelessness. Sadly, very little was done to address these problems, especially after the liberal President Lyndon B. Johnson was replaced by the conservative Richard Nixon in 1968.

The Riots had devastated Watts and made life even harder for its residents. The stores they frequented, as inadequate as they may have been, were largely destroyed. The community's reputation suffered and it was difficult to attract any new investment. The Black residents of the "middle class" began to move away, especially after Proposition 14 was declared unconstitutional in 1967 and housing discrimination abated. As the more prosperous Blacks left, poverty in Watts only became more entrenched, exascerbating some of the problems that had caused the Riots in the first place.

The most visible improvement made in Watts after the Riots was the opening of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hospital in the unincorporated community of Willowbrook, adjacent to Watts, in 1972. Other improvements were slow in coming. The City created a "redevelopment area" along 103rd Street, and the vacant lots of "Charcoal Alley" were slowly replaced by a modern health center, a modern post office, a community and civic center with City offices, and several mixed-income housing developments far surperior to the housing projects built a generation earlier. Bringing retail back proved the most difficult task, and it wasn't until the mid-1980's that the City convinced developer Alexander Haagen to develop the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Shopping Center at 103rd Street and Compton Avenue. While the shopping center brought a much-needed modern supermarket, drug store, and a host of other stores and restaurants to the community, it was surrounded by a tall fence and heavily guarded by security officers, an environment criticized by commentator Mike Davis in his noir-influenced study of L.A., "City of Quartz." Alas, the shopping center's implict message of "it's okay to spend your money here, but we don't really trust you" made a mockery of the progress Watts had made and was analogous to the disrespect previous merchants had exhibited towards the community. The retail options in Watts remain limited in comparison to other communities of similar size, and as one might expect, prices are still not always competitive with those in other parts of Los Angeles.

Perhaps the greatest effect of the Riots was not on Watts, but on its neighboring suburbs in southeast Los Angeles County. Huntington Park, South Gate, and Lynwood had remained "lillywhite" bastions of the "middle class" California Dream although they bordered on the increasingly Black and impoverished communities of South Los Angeles. The Riots alarmed the residents of these communities, who now found themselves "dangerously close" to Watts. During the Riots, the Mayors of these cities arranged for the Southern Pacific Railroad to line the rail crossings along Alameda Street (known as the "Cotton Curtain") with box cars to stop the rioters from crossing over. After 1965, the entire Southeast area experienced "white filght" as its residents moved on to suburbs further out from what had become "the inner city." They, in turn, were replaced by Latinos, whose population in Southern California had begun to increase in the 1970's. Huntington Park, South Gate, and Lynwood are radically different places today.

Deconstructing the Riots

Even today, the Watts Riots are open to widely varying interpretations. Were they truly a "riot," an orgy of unrestrained violence and destruction undertaken by reckless individuals, or were they a "rebellion," a justified assertion of a repressed and exploited community's frustration and desire for equality? The answer, of course, is a combination of these two seemingly contradictory viewpoints.

It's important to note that the late 1950's and early 1960's marked the ascent of the civil rights movement, largely under the leadership of the charasmatic Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King advocated non-violent resistance as the best way for Blacks to "overcome," but by 1965 many Blacks probably felt that this non-violent approach wasn't really working at all, or at least not working very quickly or effectively. Indeed, the non-violent civil rights movement was met with overwhelming resistance, much of it violent, especially in the South. Dr. King himself was shot to death in 1968. The Black population in Watts, faced by the daily indignities of police mistreatment and outright brutality, along with economic "colonization" by property owners and retailers from outside the community, may have realized it was time to fight violence with violence, to answer oppression and exploitation with destruction.

Obviously, the ends didn't justify the means, especially when the "ends" in this instance didn't entail a great improvement in the lives of Watts residents. The reason Watts residents destroyed their own community was because they didn't really "own" it, felt like prisoners in it, and wished to "take it back," but this line of reasoning didn't make sense to most observers. Many people across the country were unsympathetic towards those who would vandalize, loot, or burn property or those who would attempt to inflict violence on law enforcement officers. The fact remains that those were crimes in the eye of the law, regardless of whether they were commited out of frustration, desperation, or a desire for self-empowerment.

While it is clear that the Riots did not help advance the situation for those in Watts, it is not as clear whether the Riots helped advance the civil rights movement and the advancement of Blacks in general in this country. While the Watts Riots and the subsequent riots of the "long, hot summers" of the late 1960's may not have expressed the positive, inclusive position taken by Dr. King, they put a forceful and assertive, if not violent, message of "Black Power" before the American people. The issue of civil rights could not be ignored or fought into oblivion; if it was, there would be very dire consequences that threatened to destabilize the nation. The question posed by poet Langston Hughes had been answered: "a dream deferred" does indeed "explode."

Watts Today

Some things have changed in Watts, some things have remained the same.

The most striking change has been another major demographic shift. As Blacks continue to move out of Watts and South Los Angeles, Latinos have moved in. The population of Watts in 2000 was 61% Latino and 38% Black, although many people (even those within Los Angeles) still percieve of Watts as a predominately Black community.

The portion of owner-occupied housing actually decreased slightly from 1965 to 2000, moving from 34% to 32%. Unemployment has grown in those years, from 14% to 21%. These statistics demonstrate that life has not greatly improved in Watts.

Aside from economic indicators, the actual "quality of life" in Watts hasn't visibly improved, at least not to this observer. Many areas of the community could rightfully be considered "blighted," with a prevalence of graffiti and trash, poorly maintained properties, and homeless encampments. Watts appears to still suffer from an inadequate provision of City services, since these conditions and others that would not be tolerated in most places of the City seem to run rampant there.

The many housing projects of Watts remain today and continue to be "blights" on the community in their own right. Their modest structures and green spaces, which once represented the pinnacle of Modern design and social engineering, are now surrounded by tall security fences and the environment within has become so destitute, hostile, and violent that many law enforcement personnel are afraid to enter them.

One major negative development since 1965 has been the rise in violent gangs and gang warfare. Perhaps it's not a coincidence that gangs became more prevalent in the years immediately following the Riots, as young Black men who percieved they had few opportunities embraced the violent, but communal, lifestyle of gangs as a way to empower themselves, much as the rioters had empowered themselves through communal violence and destruction. Unfortunately, gangs became intertwined with the trafficking of illegal drugs, especially crack, and the "crack epidemic" that began in the 1980's has ravaged poor urban communities in ways no one could have anticipated. Gang warfare remains a problem, with "kids killing kids" in Watts and other South Los Angeles communities so often that such shootings don't get reported in the local media unless an "innocent bystander" is affected.

Even Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hospital, intended to adequately serve Watts and South Los Angeles, has become mired in inefficiency, corruption, and controversy. Over the last several years, several deaths at the Hospital were deemed to have resulted from improper care and several mini-scandals have highlighted gross mismanagement. The County Board of Supervisors, over the objections of Watts residents, may find the only solution out of the "King/Drew" morass is to shut the Hospital down, or at least severly curtail services.

Despite a lack of progress in many aspects of life in Watts, transportation has definitely improved. Bus service improved in the years after the Riots and continues to adequately serve the area. The Metro Blue Line opened in 1990, a light-rail transit corridor linking Downtown Los Angeles to Long Beach along the Pacific Electric's old right-of-way. The north-south Blue Line was joined by the east-west Green Line in 1995, with a transfer point just south of Watts. Ironically, the Green Line provided access to employment at many aerospace and defense industry plants after those businesses had begun their steep decline due to the end of the Cold War.

Although property values in Watts continue to be the lowest in any part of the City, the strong need for housing, coupled with rising property values throughout Southern California, has resulted in new development. I have observed several houses and a small shopping center built on lots that were vacant for years. Several more houses are under construction as I write. This new development, and the new residents it attracts, may serve to revitalize the community further.

Moving Forward

While my assessment of the current state of Watts appears to be overwhelmingly negative, I do not believe that Watts, or South Los Angeles as a whole, is "beyond hope." Just because things haven't improved greatly since 1965 doesn't mean they won't by 2045. The key to positive change in Watts rests with its residents, who by and large are honest, decent, hard-working people chasing the elusive American Dream and desiring the best for their families and their community -- not different from you and I at all, just lacking in political power. If the residents continue to push for a better Watts, progress will me made.

When I arrived in Florence-Firestone in the fall of 2001, it was not much different from Watts, but the County has begun to seriously and conscientiously improve its provision of services and encourage revitalization and reinvestment. The County's efforts have resulted in an increase in the sense of community pride and ownership, which in turn has increased the participation of local residents in local affairs and has caused them to demand more from themselves, each other, and the government to make their community better. Florence-Firestone has a long way to go, but it's improving, and it's surpassing Watts in its quality of life. Florence-Firestone's progress can be duplicated in Watts and elsewhere in South Los Angeles, if only the political will can be cultivated.

We all must recognize that the greatest challenge for Watts and communities like it around the country is to increase educational and employment opportunities, especially for youth. Gang life will have no appeal if young men and women believe that they have other options. Sadly, the reality in these communities is that young men and women don't have many options, and the environment they live in is not usually supportive of any desire they may have for advancement. This can change.

The United States may never be a country with true "equal opportunity," but we must continue to work towards better civil rights, race relations, and most importantly, better and more equitable educational opportunities. I wish I knew how to achieve these things, unfortunately I don't think anyone does. All we can do is to continue to make genuine attempts to frankly discuss the problems in this nation and work towards solutions. In doing so, we must candidly study the Watts Riots and events from our past, as well as the situation presented before us today. Even 40 years later, our hindsight with regard to the Riots is not "20/20."