Watts, 1965
In August of 1965, California and the United States experienced an outbreak of violence that was the worst that any had ever seen before. After the arrest of Marquette Frye and family, many residents of Watts were outraged at the treatment of Frye and his family. Many asserted that the police had used unnecessary force in the incident and were outraged. Rumors of the incident spread quickly throughout Watts. One rumor even stipulated that the police had kicked a pregnant spectator of the arrest. As a result, violence quickly escalated across the neighborhood, and California experienced the worst uprising in its history at that point. The 1992 Los Angeles Uprising would later replace the Watts Uprising as the most devastating in California history.
While the arrest of Frye, his brother, and mother was the event that marks the starting point of the uprising, several other social and economic features contributed to the outbreak of violence. United States involvement in World War II resulted in a shift in the racial demographics of many American cities. Promise of new factory jobs caused many to move into new cities. Los Angeles is no exception; between 1940 and 1965, the population of African Americans rose from 75,000 to 650,000 in Los Angeles County. An increase in African American presence in the city lead to more intense racial relations. A few years later, the end of WWII took away the same promising jobs that had brought many to the city as factories began to close. In an already intense and oppressive racial atmosphere, increases in unemployment rates did nothing to strengthen racial relations.
In addition to rising unemployment rates, the rampant unfair housing practices in California also added to the frustrations of many African Americans. Unfair practices in California included restrictive covenants that allowed property owners to outwardly refuse to sell or rent property to African Americans, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups. However, in 1963, African Americans finally got the solution to unfair housing practices with the passing of the Rumford Fair Housing Act. The Act banned housing discrimination based solely on the basis of race, gender, disabilities, and other factors. The next year, opponents of the Rumford Act introduced Proposition 14 to repeal the Act. The Proposition gained significant support and passed by a large margin. By the time of the mistreat of Marquette Frye and his family during their arrest in 1965, African Americans in Watts were fed up with their constant oppression and mistreatment.
As is the case today, the Watts Uprising was commonly referred to as a riot by the mainstream media. Coverage of the events often attributed the outbreak of the "riots" to "hoodlum" or "lawlessness." They often fail to report on the underlying causes of the events, such as racial oppression and unfair housing practices California. Instead, news coverage tends to focus on arrest of Marquette Frye as the single event that lead to outbreak of the uprising.