Notes

During the WWII not only were tensions high at battlefields but at home as well. Due to the rising fear of the west coast being attacked as many as 50,000 service men could be found in LA during any given weekend. Jazz had become a become a hit with many young americans. Zoot suits were a part of jazz that defied the norms of segregation , young women and men alike walked full of confidence with these suits on.The service men began to see many young mexican americans wearing these suits and many service men thought as this to be unamerican as war was going on and resources needed to be converved not made into flashy suits. On Monday May 30th 1943 Sailor Joe Colman was passing a group of mexican americans felt like he was about to be attacked and then grabbed onto the arm of a young man in a zoot suit. Coleman had made a mistake as he was atacked from behind and knocked unconscious shortly after. This caused an uproar with the service men about a couple days later on June 3rd young service men left the armory with makeshift weapons with the recent attack fresh on their minds they set out to find zoot suitors. They went to Carmen theater and found young boys who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, the boys were clubbed and stripped of their zoot suits and the suits were burned. On the second night of riots mexican americans went in front of the armory and threw slurs and other things to the guards. Later that night serice men went out, when they could not find any zoot suitors they began to target Mexican Americans in general. Not only were kids targeted many adults were too. The worst night of violence was committed on June 7th a local news paper had published a guide on how to de zoot a zoot suitor. Over 5,000 people had gathred downtown to find zoot suitors. Many went to attack the mexicans and others went to attack african americans. The local government did little to help the zoot suitors. Police on this night were arresting zoot suitors without a reason and those that questioned them were swiftly beaten and thrown into the car. The zoot suit riots were caused by resentment by many white Americans who were afraid that their cities were being filled with non American people who would take their jobs houses and other things