In the very same chamber where Los Angeles City Council members once debated the zoot suit ban, the city government played a role in fanning the brutal raids on Latinx, Filipino and Black Angeleno youth that unfolded across the city 80 years ago. For the role, city leaders formally apologized Friday. .
The apology comes just 80 years after a dark chapter in the city’s history, in which groups of white soldiers, along with police and civilians, roamed the city and instigated brutal attacks on minority youth. This indiscriminate violence was called the “Zoot Suit Riot” after the baggy suits that were popular among young people at the time.
“The City of Los Angeles can finally take responsibility and apologize for its role in effectively sanctioning the violence that continued 80 years ago,” said City Councilman Kevin De Leon, who introduced the city council. Resolution condemned the riots last month.
The city council celebrated a historic apology this Friday with dancers in zoot suits and remarks by De Leon and community leaders, saying the apology was a necessary step to highlight the city’s role in the week-long riots. praised.
“Twelve-year-old boys were being violently beaten and stripped of their clothes,” De León said. “An act that exposes deep-seated racism targeting Latinos. And at the time, the actions of police, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the City Council were equally shameful.”
When Mr. De Leon started speaking, several people behind him jeered him, calling him a racist. Others urged respect.
According to contemporary reports, during the first week of June 1943, minority youths were beaten, harassed, and stripped of their clothes in the streets. De León said some were urinated in public.
“When I was a kid, I remember my mother telling me clearly how angry and upset she was when she saw young Mexican children running naked in the streets with their suits ripped off. said Chicano Moratorium Commissioner Miguel Lopez. Dozens of people dressed in pachuco style gathered in front of the chamber.
As speakers stand in front of the City Council Chamber, black and white historical footage, old newspaper clippings, and recent footage of Lowriders cruising over the Sixth Avenue Viaduct are displayed on two television screens above the City Council’s horseshoe. was projected on Newspaper clippings emphasized that the supporting media of the time, the Times, emphasized the cause of the white mob rather than the victims. One such headline read, “Zoot Suit Entrants Learn Lessons in Fighting Soldiers.”
Manny Alcaraz, a purported pachuco culture aficionado, hopes the city’s apology will inform younger generations about both the riots and the long list of famous Zoot Suiters dressed in outfits that the Los Angeles City Council tried to ban. Cesar Chavez, Cabs Callaway and Malcolm X to name a few.
“There was a zoot suit riot going on this week, tonight,” he said. “This is what I want the younger generation to know.”
Racial tensions at the time were heightened by the now infamous Sleepy Lagoon murder trial. After the murder of a young Latino man in southeast Los Angeles, 300 suspects were arrested, most of them Latinos. Twenty-two boys were indicted, fueling anti-Mexico sentiment.
Through the resolution, the city formally apologized for exercising its authority to outlaw wide pegged trousers and wavy coats instead of cracking down on violent white mobs.
“Rather than trying to protect the communities directly targeted by these brutal days of violence, the Los Angeles City Council and the city of Los Angeles are seeking to pass ordinances banning the wearing of zoot suits to help these people. We must apologize for responding to speciesist attacks,” the resolution said.
The celebration followed a similar apology by the County of Los Angeles. The county last month unanimously condemned the attack and vowed to fight racism.
Times staff writer Julia Wick contributed to this report.
