Zoot Suit Riots

The Zoot Suit Riots began on June 3, 1943, when several White sailors in Los Angeles alleged that they had been jumped by a group of young Mexican American men in “zoot suits.” For the next 4 days and nights, Mexican American “zoot suiters,” commonly referred to as Pachucos and known for wearing wide-brimmed hats, long coats with wide lapels and padded shoulders, and baggy pants tapered narrowly at the ankles, were attacked by White servicemen across the city. Soldiers and marines joined sailors to form posses and search city streets, restaurants, movie theaters, and other places of business in attempts to find and assault zoot suiters. While Mexican American young men were the primary targets, African American, Filipino, and even some White youth who wore zoot suits were pursued by the unruly mobs. Scores of zoot suiters were beaten, stripped naked, and left humiliated in the streets by White servicemen. Although no one was killed, countless zoot suiters were injured and arrested, while most of the servicemen rioters went unpunished. Ultimately, the riots revealed the volatile nature of home front race relations and the difficulties faced by many non-Whites in their quest for equality during World War II.

The bloody and public nature of the riots prompted a wide range of responses from local authorities and city leaders. The city police, shore patrol, and military police initially did little to discourage the rioting, as many officers refused to stop the beatings, congratulated the servicemen assailants on a job well-done, and even participated in the verbal and physical abuse of zoot suiters. Only after several days did navy and army authorities in the area restrict enlisted men from the downtown area in an effort to end the riots. City officials expressed support for the police and armed forces, discounted race discrimination as a factor in the riots, and blamed the disturbances on the presence of zoot suit gangs. The Los Angeles city council even considered a proposal to make wearing a zoot suit illegal within city limits, and the U.S. Department of Justice outlawed the manufacturing and selling of zoot suits on the grounds that the material used was in violation of orders by the War Production Board to conserve fabric. Similarly, the mainstream press blamed zoot suiters for the riots, criminalizing them as drug users, prostitutes, and inherently violent. Many race-based organizations, however, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Coordinating Committee for Latin American Youth, and newspapers like the African American-owned California Eagle, came to the defense of zoot suiters and demanded that everyone involved be held responsible and subject to legal action.

The riots stemmed from the shifting economic and social conditions of wartime Los Angeles. As thousands of Mexican, African American, and White American migrants arrived in the city in search of employment, increased competition for limited jobs, housing, and social services sparked racial tension. Combined with the already sizable non-White communities in Los Angeles, the city's growing diversity intensified the wartime xenophobia of White residents. Like the thousands of Japanese Americans forced into internment camps following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, zoot suiters were of particular concern to local authorities and residents who viewed them as a threat to home front stability and national unity. Animosity against zoot suiters was fueled by the infamous Sleepy Lagoon case of 1942, in Los Angeles, in which a group of nearly twenty Mexican American boys were convicted in one murder trial, and by the subsequent months of sensational journalism by the mainstream press depicting zoot suiters as juvenile delinquents, drug abusers, and prostitutes.

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