Dark History - 2: Zoot Suit Riots

Episode Date: June 9, 2021

On this week’s episode, Bailey explores the story behind the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943 in Los Angeles alongside an Historical Expert, Professor Pagan. Together, they discuss race relations in the US during this period, Zoot Suit inspiration from Jazz culture and the implications that the riots have even today! We also would love to thank our sponsors. Apostrophe: Save $15 off your first visit with a board-certified dermatologist at apostrophe.com/darkhistory and use code, DARKHISTORY. StitchFix: 30% off when you keep everything with stitchfix.com/darkhistory. Scentbird: 30% off your first month with scentbird.com/darkhistory.

Isn't this a free country? Can't we wear the kind of clothes that we like? Must we be disproved at the order of other men? An al-waxman interview with the boy involved in the riot. Hi friends! Happy Wednesday or Thursday if you're watching over on YouTube. I hope you're having a wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian and this is the dark history boggass. Hello! if you're new, welcome. Take a seat by me, don't be shy. I'm just here to tell you an unsettling spooky

or twisted story from our past that was more than likely never covered in history class, you know, they were too busy. But since the inception of schools and their chosen curriculum, there has always been a veil around a lot of real truths behind the world's most notorious moments. There are people still out there with a hell of a lot of power, trying to hide mountains

of world's truths, afraid of what real history will reveal. And that's where I come in, to reveal the darker side of the same old history lesson, and it's a real hoot. Zootzu-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye-raye poppin' daddies, which their name is questionable, but okay. If you check out their YouTube, listen to their song, whatever. You would have no idea that there's actually a really dark history around Zoot Su, right? It's really a thing, not just a song. On the surface, the song, and its video, it's just like a good old time, dancing, drinking, picking up the swinging heap cat, or like a chick at the bar. Patrons are laughing and smiling. The big brass band pipes

out the tune and the charismatic lead singer struts around in his bright blue zoot suit. And before you know what the song is just stuck in your head for the next week, you're welcome. So now that we have the soundtrack to this story, Buzz in in our brain, here comes the obvious question. What the hell is a zoot suit and why is it causing all these riots? So get comfy, throw back a bottle of beer and prepare to learn the dark history behind the zoot suit riot. So let's jump into the backstory, right? Where it all started. Los Angeles, California, 1942. Now at this point in time, Los Angeles was a rapidly growing city was dealing with rapid immigration and World

War 2 was in full swing. And if you're a cool Mexican-American man living in Los Angeles and you want people to know that you're the shit, you my friend would be rocking a zoot-sute. Alright, let's pause for a second and tag in one of my favorite researchers, Professor Pagan, who is a plethora of knowledge on this subject. Professor Pagan, I was wondering if you could just introduce yourself. Okay, so my name is Ed Wartho over to go on Pagan, that's my full name. I'm the Bob Stompendown Professor of History at Arizona State University. So I teach American studies and and American history. I'm very excited to have you here and I appreciate you so much for sitting down

and having a further chat about the zootsuit riots because for me personally I had never heard of this ever and I was curious as to why. So when doing some research there's still like a lot of further questions that I'm so thankful to have you here that so let's just jump right into it. Can you give us a little explanation about what the race relations were like during the 1940s, specifically in Los Angeles County or Southern California? I would say the overall view of race in the United States in the 1940s

was that segregation, racial segregation was the law of the land, and it was also socially enforced. So there were a lot of unwritten laws that were expected of people of color. And if you violated them, you could actually suffer violently. The larger picture is this is an area of enforced segregation. I would say at the same time though that there are small pockets in different places of the country where people completely ignored

that. So in very small venues, that segregation was completely ignored. And this is where jazz comes in for working-class youth. Is that jazz culture was inherently this interracial art form, but it's musical definitely, but it's much more than just the sound. It was by its nature, this kind of this fusion. And young people saw that on the stage, and they saw it in the performers that they admired, and they replicated it in these jazz clubs, right? And so overall picture, yes, in forced segregation, but in certain pockets of the country, absolutely not. And people were willing to simply be themselves. And to show what they had in their heart and in their soul as opposed to what their skin color was.

So wearing a zoosuit was a cultural expression that allowed young men and women to visually let people know that you were the boss, you were cool, and it was an empowering gesture. The good ones, the suits, I'm talking about, they were cheap, okay? The average zoot suit would run a guy or girl, 200 bucks, a whole month's salary, and equivalent to almost three grand two-day. Not a lot of money for a suit, right? Yeah. This was especially high during the war times of the early 40s when many people were pinching pennies to feed their families. So let's break down what all this scratch is being spent on. A zoot suit like other suits starts with a coat and pants. I know, iconic. The signature coat has broad shoulders with the jacket in at the waist and it flared out, iconic. The signature coat has broad shoulders with the jacket in at the waist,

and it flared out from there. The coat extends all the way down to the mid thigh in what was called the fingertip style, because the length would stop where your fingertips would reach, where your arms were at your sides. The zoot-suit pants are baggy. They're pleated and they were high-waisted, which I love because it hides the phupa, you know,

high-waisted, it like sucks it in. So they were doing that. Mm-hmm. To keep the baggy pants from slipping down, a thin belt or suspenders would like hold them higher, okay? It'd be like right underneath your boobs. The fit, the narrows in with pegged cuffs at the ankle to create the dramatic zoot, zoot, shape. Underneath the jacket, you would wear like a dress shirt with long sleeves. Now here's the thing. Absolutely no wrinkles. Okay, your iron game needs to be strong. Damn it. You cannot leave the house with a wrinkle. All right, that's just not acceptable and you're not going to do that. Today, we do that. But like back then, no, no, no. So then comes either short tie or you would leave it unbuttoned at the top

if you wanna feel like a nice breeze through your chest hair. And then you would get a hat to match and it was time to hit the club after that. This outfit defied traditional men's suits in every way. This was the in-your-face suit. These suits were even gender-bending. War time production jobs meant that the working class youth or like young adults, I should say,

for the first time, they had money of their own to burn. Also, women had their own money too, which led to some of the women turning it around, the zoot suits, and they were wearing them themselves for self-empowerment, to show like, hey, I'm a boss too. And these were some boss lady suits. Now, this was a huge violation of gender norms at the time and the women wearing the suits freaking loved it.

Because we like challenging the system, let's be real. Okay, so I know a lot of men were wearing the suit suits, but during the research we learned that like women were kind of doing it as a sign of empowerment. Was it just as popular for women or was it like really bold for women to wear a suit suit? Would they not even touch it? If you took a survey of how many young people wore the drape or the zoot suit, the majority of them would be young men. There were some young women who did it as well, particularly on the West Coast, and Didusa was really quite bold. Again,

this is a period where women didn't wear pants. Yeah. And the work pants was considered to be highly scandalous. So to be wearing a man's suit was to really push all sorts of boundaries. Yes. Gender race, I mean, you named it, it just pushed all the boundaries. So for those young women who put it on, they were bold. Yeah. They were bold. I guess that's where I get stuck because women, I mean, again, weren't even allowed to wear

pants. So what pushed a woman to put on a zoot suit? Like, because that back then is just considered, oh, absolutely. Yeah. So to put on pants. Yeah. So it's like, what? Set this woman off to be like, you know what?

I'm putting on pants today. I'm going to do it. You know, I'll leave. How? You know, I'm just, yeah, I would just say, you know, in every generation, you know, there are those people who are willing to push the boundaries and they were willing to,

to make a statement by how they look and how they're gonna present themselves out in public. And you have young people like that in every generation. And so, I don't know what it was and inspired them necessarily, but it is something that I think is admirable. Again, to put the boundaries, and to expand people's minds, and they paid for it, unfortunately.

They paid for it in some tragic ways. So same long fingertip length coat for the women accessories, like knee-high body socks, dark lipstick, and a flower in your hair. Zoot suitors, they went big with their hair, which I love. It was like, they were trying to reach Jesus with their hair. And it would actually get them in a lot more trouble. Because the signature hairstyle, it was like a big pompe door.

It was swept back with a lot of height. But thanks to the sexualized stereotypes of women of color, these looks were quickly considered promiscuous. And newspapers would wrongly accuse young women of color these looks were quickly considered promiscuous and newspapers would wrongly accuse young women of hiding weapons in their hair like knives or fingernail files. The newspapers would also falsely accuse them of being members of gangs, having STDs, or getting into petty fights. Again, with no proof to back their claims, it was just racist journalists using their

platform to create a false narrative. How ridiculous, but also a good place to hide their claims. It was just racist journalists using their platform to create a false narrative. How ridiculous, but also a good place to hide a knife, just saying, if you needed one. So in this time, fashion would write your narrative. The combo of your heritage mixed with your own fashion choice is like a double whammy, okay? So you have this fantastic suit you want to wear with your big, amazing, gorgeous hair.

And I'll police consider you to be rebelling against convention. And within a lot of working class conservative families, the style and the attitude was perceived to be a threat to the stability of families. Fathers, especially boo. They just like this trend of their daughters wearing the suit suit style. Some of them would go as far as tearing up the suits

to shreds if they were caught out in public wearing one. Oh yeah. And like the fathers would threaten to put their daughters on the streets, kick them out if they were ever seen wearing a zoot suit. So close your eyes and imagine with me a bunch of angry dads running around the streets with scissors just looking for like a zoot suit to shred.

So everyone was asleep in your house, right? You could sneak out the bedroom window with your zoot-suit, take it for a spin. This was the kind of outfit you'd wear dancing, listening to popular music, taking over the town, jazz. The zoot colors were always really bright, eye-catching, super loud, very in your face.

It was supposed to be flashy. You wanted to stand out, that was the whole point of it. Mashed up with the tight-waisted flowing dress wrapped around your dance partner. The most stylish Zoot Suit brought the best dancers, who then got the best dance partners, and the rest plays like an old-timey movie, where everyone gets married and has little babies and puts them in tiny Zoot Suit's storks. For a lot of young people, it felt good to be young, living in Los Angeles, expressing their creativity, style, loud, and proud. But during these times in America, not everyone is going to appreciate your fashion sense. In the 1940s, the demand for labor in booming Southern

California was bringing in thousands of Mexicans over the border through labor contracts. Now, this upset a lot of white people threatened by their new presence. Mixed this with undertones of racism and a derogatory term used like punk to describe these men who did not follow American social norms, they would refer to them as Pachuko. So when did the term Pachuko arrive? And when did it become kind of a bad word than real meaning? To my knowledge, the term originated in El Paso.

The best that I could determine was probably the 1920s. And Pachuko was always a way of describing someone as a punk, right? But not in a good way. Now, as we think about punk music today, it's like, you know, the punk is cool, but no, this was a punk, this was a jerk, this was someone you did the one

is you didn't want your children associated with. It was that those trashy types, right? That's kind of the sentiment behind the term, but you go, and so it originated in, you know, Baso, it expands as a way of kind of describing people who were behaving in ways that parents didn't approve of. And so that as we move in the 1940s, particularly Los Angeles, the war itself created this widespread anxiety that juvenile delinquency was going to go through the roof. So if you think about it, every able-bodied father was off-fighting the war. Every able-bodied mother was in the factories creating munitions for the, you know, for the men to fight in the war. And so there's this tremendous concern, what's happening to the kids? In the 1980s, we used to, we

called this term, Latch-keyed children. We use that term very much anymore, but it's basically children who come home and there's no parental supervision at home. What's going to happen to them? What are they doing? Well, back in the 1940s, they call it juvenile delinquency. And so it's kind of like the mainstream media, the press, tried to come to terms with this so-called juvenile delinquency problem, which it wasn't. They latched on this term, Plattucco, as a way of describing these punks, right?

These ill-mannered young people who were, again, were pushing boundaries and were, were frightening the, the, the parental generation. So is that why it was kind of related to the zoot suit? Is because they were kind of pushing boundaries by wearing the suit out? And yeah, yeah. So I would, I would argue that they're, they're actually two different phenomena that are overlapping with each other.

If someone identified as a butchukor was called a butchukor, it didn't mean it was because they wore a zoo suit. It didn't mean that they're all and someone who wore a zoo suit wasn't necessarily a butchukor. I would I would argue that someone who wore a drape or a zoo suit, they were just a jazz fan. They were migrants to the US just refugees fleeing the devastation for the revolution in Mexico. They were not trying to Americanize and this growing population of Mexican-American migrating north only widened the racial gap in Los Angeles. Even though Los Angeles was a liberal city that claimed to welcome all people, there

were still incredible racism throughout the city towards anyone who was not white. And if tonight is the night to reveal that new zoosoo, a white police officer might look at you and think you might be a criminal, a delinquent, or even anti-American, all because of its... your dumb little green suit and your towering pompadour, right? Like it's just a zoo. Get over it. It's complicated back then, right? In my opinion, the officer. Get over it. It's complicated back then, right? In my opinion, the officer in this example is most likely dealing with some kind of jealousy issues because maybe his shirt is wrinkly or he just wants to look fabulous. No wrinkles, iron game needs to be strong, okay? But still, racial tensions would run high night after night

on the streets of Los Angeles. The Zot suit was seen as a flag to its composers that they are different, that they are dangerous. But all they were trying to do is have a little freaking fun. It is clear there are people in this city that don't care for this group or the suit they are wearing. So it's World War II and the US is about to invade Japan by air for the first time.

The war effort is raging and as more soldiers deploy, the tighter regulations get on the materials and goods being made in the US. In March of 1942, tailors had to stop selling zootsuits because of wartime fabric rationing. Oh yes, they were like, we need these materials for the war. So you're gonna have to put a limit

on how much fabric you can use. At the same time, the zootsuit style, which required lots of fabric to achieve, was hugely popular, and now it was at a national scale. People were still interested in buying them despite this new regulation, so stores like Murray's, Young's, and Earls would design, produce, and sell custom bootleg Zoot Suites. Now this led to the spread of the idea that the zoo suits were giving a big middle finger to the whites.

White Americans began to view the young Mexican-American men wearing the suit as anti-war, and therefore anti-American and unpatriotic. But if you look at the facts, jazz culture wasn't anti-war. These kids just love the music and dancing, and it's just a suit. Okay, so I think that's what I was misunderstanding. It's more about jazz culture and the music,

and that's where it really came from. And then once it became mainstream for some reason, the Zootzoot became a bad thing. Well, the Zootzoot again was always considered a bad thing, because jazz music was not mainstream music. So if we went back in time and turned on the radio, that would be our only means to listening to popular music. You turn on the radio. And of course they had the top 40s back then like they do today on mainstream radio. You would never hear jazz. This was

underground music. And so even the airwaves were segregated. And so that's what made the whole thing scandalous. Would you say that white people were not very accepting of jazz music or were they also into jazz music as well? Yeah, so I would characterize this not so much as a racial differentiation more as a class and generational differentiation. So for parents and grandparents, of course, you don't want to call social disruption upon your head by violating the laws that are outside.

And so, of course, you want to be very cautious. In fact, I put this in this context, so my mother's side, my grandparents were refugees from Mexico from the revolution. And their attitude when they came the United States was keep your head down. Don't get in trouble just keep your head down right because they had been through violence and they weren't interested in calling violence upon themselves anymore. They just wanted to be left alone right and that's how a lot of for Mexican-Americans that's kind

of how they approach life was just keep your head down and be quiet don't don't don't make a mess but for young people though who grew up in the United States for the children of these refugees, where this was the land that they knew, was the only land that they knew, this was their culture as well. They embraced jazz because it provided a different vision of what this nation could be and what the future could be like.

And it wasn't one that was defined again by the color of your skin, it was defined about what you had inside. And it was the opportunity to show what you had inside. That's where jazz was important. So jazz appealed to working class young people across the color line. So you had white kids wearing suit suits

and dancing the jitterbug and listening to jazz music. You had Filipinos, Italians, Jews, Mexican Americans, African Americans. But I would argue for the middle class and certainly for the parental class, if you will, for parents and grandparents. This was in a front. It's like, oh my gosh, the world's coming to the end. What are these young people doing, right? Same thing happened with with rock and roll in 1950. Same kind of reaction that, you know, this is Western civilization is going to collapse because of this this popular expression. But with the influx of industrial jobs and the new goal of making Los Angeles a wartime

center of industry, new military outposts, bases, and stations were built in the city. The Naval Reserve Training Center was a multi-million dollar facility built brand new. The government had to decide where to put it, and they didn't want to inconvenience or deal with complaints from any of their white residents in Los Angeles. So they're like, let's just build it in the middle of a mainly like Mexican-American neighborhood. No one will notice, you know? And it was named Shavez Raveen, which led to displacing Mexican-American residents who had little power to fight this decision. And I kind of laughed right now because it's like, oh my god. Like how many times we

have to hear this damn story, right? Same thing. Same thing all the time. It's exhausting. But to add insult, the training school was only for white sailors. The zoot suitors were feeling like, hey, these guys are coming into our spaces and our homes. Meanwhile, the whites are feeling overly confident like they run this place. And because of this, tensions are a brew in. Sailors, on their nights off, they were trying to do something, right? They're trying to go out dancing, go to movies, go to bars, out to eat. They're just trying to do anything with their free time. So the zoot suitors would physically block them from going in or threaten them to go away.

They didn't want them to come into their bar, so restaurants, their movie theaters, like they were blocking them from going in or threatening them to go away. They didn't want them to come into their bar or so restaurants or movie theaters like they were blocking them from getting in. The whole city was swarming with the Navy guys and the zoot suitors didn't want their favorite spots to also be taken from them and they're going to stand their ground. So again, tensions are brewing, something's bound to happen. Somethings bound to happen. Conflicts between the zoot suitors and the sailors are escalating more and more every day. There was so much tension in the air and with all like this built up rage,

these men are just looking for our fight. So one of the things that I found in my research was that I found that for two years prior to the outbreak of this fighting, there was an escalating series of street confrontations between local kids and the sailors that were stationed at a particular Armory just north of downtown Los Angeles. Now the Shabby's ravine had long been populated by Jews and Mexican Americans and African Americans as well And and so suddenly in the middle of these

fairly poor neighborhoods you get this million dollar Facility plopped right in the middle and then you add to the fact that the military is segregated in this period so these are all white officers right right now those white officers who were stationed there on their way to downtown Los Angeles when they were on leave they had to pass through all these neighborhoods he's working class neighborhoods that were populated by tie-ins, by Jews,

by Mexican-Americans, by African-Americans. And a lot of these young people, they resented the bravado, the bragadacho, the military men who would come swaggering through their neighborhoods, and they would be insulting the people that they saw there. And so the young people would fight back.

They would either say, hey, you can't talk to my mother that way or my sister that way, get out of here. Eventually verbal altercations then started to become physical altercations, shoving and standing in front of them and things like that. So this is happening for two years. Now there is a growing distrust of immigrants, especially the so-called Pachuko culture, and there's a rampant racism fueled by the new explosion of non-conforming culture. That non-conforming identity is shown

through wearing the Zoot Suit, so the suit now becomes the target. So, with that being said, it's day one, June 3rd, 1943, and a sailor at the reserve spots some teenagers in Zoot Suits, and reports what he saw to hire up. So he goes to the big guys like, hey, I saw some guy wearing some zoosuits, you know, so he says that and then word gets around to the other young men on the street and they're all just like looking for a fight. Well, this puts all the white navy guys on edge. Like, they just, you know, how they all get

each other hyped up, that's what they're doing. They're like, hey, sell these zoosuit guys. We're gonna go kick their ass, come on and they're doing. Do like, hey, sell these doot-suit guys. We're gonna go keep the rest. Come on, and they just start looking for a fight. You get it. Anyways, another group of Navy guys go out from the training center, and when they're walking, they also run into people in zoot suits. This time though, it's two Mexican girls and four boys. According to reports, the zoot-suiters harass the sailors, messing with them, cursing at them, and even calling them names.

And it was just like everything to make them mad. Super intense, very aggressive, right? But the white sailors must have said some shit back, of course. Let's be honest here. But we don't really actually know because no one cared about asking the zoot suitors for their side of the story. So when the media was reporting on this, they mainly got all their information from the white side of the story. So they played them out to the zoot suitors to be that guys. Surprise, surprise, are we surprised? I mean, it seemed like the riots just kind of happened and then it turned into this huge mob of just fighting. How did news spread that these riots were taking place? Was it word of mouth? Was the newspapers, TV?

It was both, and this is a crazy thing, is that this escalated exponentially. So the first side of writing, it was the guy station at this Naila Reserve Armory, the Chavez Review, where Dodger Stadium is right now. In fact, that building is still there. You can see exactly where they started. And so it started between those guys and the guys in the neighborhoods between the downtown in this armoring. So it's a naval personnel that they would

go through these neighborhoods. That's where these confrontations happen. That was the first night. And and then afterwards began to just grow exponentially so that by By you know four or five nights later you have hundreds of military personnel all around Southern California In fact, there's some stories that people actually took buses from from San Diego and as far away as is Las Vegas I don't know if it's true But there are stories of of military men just pouring in because this the story was is that the local population of hoodlums, a punks, butchucos were out of control. By that point, as the right escalates, then you start seeing a very clear racial nature

of this, where they move specifically into East LA, which was predominantly Mexican-American, where they moved specifically down in the South Central, which was predominantly African American. These neighborhoods had nothing to do with the confrontations that were happening right outside the Chavez-Revee. That naval reserve, I really had nothing to do with it, but this is now where race then becomes very, very clear, is that you have these offensive maneuvers of people going into neighborhoods and parts of Los Angeles had nothing to do with the initial confrontations. I'm assuming here that they probably said

some nasty stuff right back to them. I'm sure the Navy guys didn't just sit there and take it. And like this was the last straw. The Navy men decided tonight that they were gonna do something about these unpatriotic zoot-suit wearing petrucos. 50 sailors, they leave their armory and head downtown. Night one of the zoot-suit riots has begun.

It's 1943 in Los Angeles, and an angry mob of sailors from the all-white Naval Academy are marching into downtown Los Angeles looking for anyone who's wearing a zoot suit. Word spread quickly on both sides, and soon more officers joined in the mob of sailors. So a mob of about 50 sailors and officers, together with janky weapons that they snuck

out with, okay? They targeted neighbors close to their training center and attacked anyone they could find who's wearing a zoo-zoo, as they reached Alpine street in a Mexican-American neighborhood near their armory. More military officers joined the ranks. The mob crowded through the busy popular street just looking for anyone who's wearing a zoot suit. The first they came upon were actually children.

That didn't stop them. They found a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old boy at the Carmen Theater and these sailors, they beat up these little boys. They ripped off their zoot suits and they burned their clothes right there in the street. Would you accomplish there? Anyways, but by 11 p.m., the military police had managed to round up the sailors, send them back home to the armory and they were all back home by 1 a.m. Not one sailor was charged with the crime.

Nothing. Zip. Zada. Consequences? Never heard of her. Military police and the LAPD didn't do a damn thing, you know? Maybe if they had, they could have, you know, averted what came next. Night two. The group of sailors are feeling a little cocky, a little overconfident, knowing that they can get away with whatever they want. Okay, no one's gonna arrest us. So the next night, a group of the sailors, they drive into East LA.

Now they heard a rumor that some of the zoot suitors were holding a group of Navy men hostage. Now this wasn't true, but they heard it. Therefore, it must be true. Therefore, we should get revenge, you know? Like that makes sense. So a mob again, forms with the sailors, plus some civilians this time who want to join in.

They're like, oh my god, this looks like fun. Racism? Yeah, join in. You know, like they just were excited to be there. So they roll up in a full-on squad of 20 taxis full of these men literally pulling up to start a fight. So they're, okay, so here's what they do. They pull up in the car, right?

They all get out. They all start hunting through different bars, cafes, and theaters. Now, they're looking for anyone who's wearing the suit. That's all they're looking for. They would use their makeshift weapons or their fists to just beat anyone they could. Even the authorities were in on it. Is that not a little fag-buff? Just over a suit. This is all over a suit. Do you understand? A suit. We're upset over a suit. Yes, so you've got military men, sailors, civilians, and now cops against these suit suitors. It took a full 30 minutes for only one military officer and Four cops to make it to the site. They just took their sweet ass time, you know, they're like, man Sometimes I don't have words, but sound effects help me with the words. You get it. Anyways, so that night was pretty horrendous. They're walking through the streets.

They're just picking up anyone who's got a zoot suit on. They're kicking their ass. They're beating them up pretty badly, leaving them out in the street. At the end of the night, only nine sailors were arrested. Oh yeah, just a little slap on the wrist. Bad boy. So obviously, the odds are stacked against the zoot suitors. So the next morning, the officials in charge of the naval reserve training center finally said enough is enough, okay? These big guys in charge had to at least pretend to do something about the fighting because it's not a good look, not a good look for them.

But what they did wasn't nearly enough. It was almost comical, honestly. The commanding officer is like, hey guys, We actually technically don't allow attacks on civilians. I know bummer, right? Yeah, but yeah, we don't so don't do that anymore Okay, oh, and I'm putting a night patrol out on our streets to keep an eye on you So don't think about it. So the sailors they're not feeling very threatened Okay, cuz they know like they're gonna get away with it They're just gonna go slap on the wrist. And plus, it was too late to contain what already started.

Word had already spread far and fast. These servicemen were feeling pretty cocky after seeing no one got in trouble and hearing the support from the white civilians who joined in just made them a little bit more excited. Another bloodthirsty and violent night was given the name Puchuko hysteria and it overtook the Los Angeles area. During the weekend the rioting and violence continued. People from east to west remained indoors and

only the loyal and brazen continue to shine their zoot suits in public. But the fifth day would be the worst. Soldiers, sailors and Marines in places as far as San Diego traveled all the way to Los Angeles to join the worst. Soldiers, sailors, and Marines in places as far as San Diego traveled all the way to Los Angeles to join the fighting. So there's about 5,000 servicemen and supporting civilians. They all hit the streets super excited to fight these suitors. Half of the mob went south with the goal of making it

to Watts, which was like home of majority black neighborhood. And the other half went east for the majority Mexican neighborhoods. In Watts, people openly fought back in the streets, and the police made arrests, sure, but they mainly arrested young men in the zoo suits who were defending their neighborhood, and not the ones maybe doing the attacking.

Any talk back in the zoo suitors would be beaten further. So they're getting beat by military civilians and now police. Okay, now one is safe and it's their part of town, but in the parts of town where most of the Black and Mexican Americans live, the mob is just out of control. The white mob holds up street cars, pulling people out of their cars,

and stops traffic to search for zoot suitors. And it takes until 11.30pm for one police officer to step out and start to send the remaining mob on their way. Again, no arrests were made. As the riots reach a climax, the evening press run special editions announcing that the zoot suitors plan to quote, kill every cop they see. The papers give details of when and where the supposed attacks are going to occur. So they're just making this whole situation worse. And they're not even reporting on like, I don't know, the zoot suitor side.

So the newspapers use the riots as an opportunity just to spread more of their lies and rumors and to sell more papers while they're doing it. So now we have cops, military civilians, newspapers, everyone's in it, everyone's involved. The servicemen and civilians that converge on downtown Los Angeles beat and strip every zoot-suited boy they could find. It didn't matter what color they were, even if they were wearing zoot suits. Anyone could get attacked if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. So at Evalton, they were just kicking anyone's ass who was a person of color. They were like,

hey you, and then they would just beat you up. Great. We love, yeah, that's great. At the Orphium Theater, servicemen, pole-mexican-american boys to the stage, and then they would strip them down. At least half of the victims, they were not even wearing suit suits, but they were just pulling anyone of color. The Herald in Express reports a police estimate that on this night more than 700, grotesque, clad hoodlums, rumbless, Los Angeles, bent on the common purpose of engaging in battle with servicemen. That's what they said, I didn't say that.

That's what they said. What do you think their end goal was, the Navy guys? They just wanted to kill them all, to push them out of LA? Like, what did they want? That is an excellent question. So here's one of the really crazy things about this. So in 1943, there were other race rights in the United States. And some of them were quite deadly, right?

The Zitsuit ride, as this came to be known, was very weird in the sense that there was no known murder that resulted from this writing. To my knowledge, there was no serious bodily damage that was done. The focus of the ire, of both the sailors and the military men, but also civilians, was in destroying the Zitsu, destroying the clothing of the young people that they found wearing this jazz fashion. I believe it's because this fashion allowed young people of color to stand out on their own terms.

Oh. And of course people to deal with them on their terms, right? Yeah. I would argue one of the underlying requirements of segregation was that if you were defined as a person of color, you stay in the background. You never call attention yourself and you conform. You always defer to white privilege, right? And very visible ways, right? And so for example, if there's a white person walking

towards you on a sidewalk, you step off onto the street, you let them have a sidewalk, right? These young people, when they dressed in their fine clothing, they felt empowered. Yeah. And there are lots of stories of these young people wearing these suit suits who refused to defer to white privilege.

And there was a boy of just saying, I'm here, I'm American too. This is my country too. I have a right to be here. And so what's so interesting about this right is that in that effort to destroy the clothing, they were trying to destroy the visible symbols of the self assertion of these young people of color. Yeah, right. That makes way more sense now. Like how dare you stand out. You're not allowed to, unless we give you permission. Kind of like, yeah, wow. So we're going to put you back in your place by stripping and clothing off you. Yeah, right. Wow. Yeah. As the morning sun rose on Los Angeles, it was finally

quiet. The riots were finally over. It was June 8, 1943. Over 600 immigrant youth were arrested, Jewish, black, Italian, Mexican-Americans, anyone wearing a zout suit, and over 100 people were seriously injured. Luckily, there were no reported deaths. 94 civilians and 18 servicemen received medical treatment for serious injuries. All 94 of these zoosuiters were arrested by the LAPD, and the LAPD also arrested a couple military guys, but literally was only two guys, just two. The senior military officials finally did something.

They declared Los Angeles out of bounds to all Navy, Coast Guard, and Army personnel. They were like, out, you're causing issues, get out. So the LAPD also made moves and created a special riot patrol to be prepared if this ever happened again, which worked great during both the Watts riot and the 92 LA riots. Note my sarcasm, because it's there. On June 9th, the Los Angeles City Council proposed a resolution, a policy change. Finally, some sort of justice after all

this violence and suffering. They ban the zoot suits within city limits, OK? So if you're caught wearing one, you can be sentenced to a 50-day jail sentence. Cool. This ban, it like, it luckily didn't pass, but this population stance against the zoot suitors was that they started the riots,

and they got what they deserved. The servicemen really felt justified in their actions and why wouldn't they? They'd been attacking people at random while wearing their full military uniforms and had barely gotten a slap on the wrist. The local white press was largely supportive of their acts as well. They would praise them, they were like, yay, you guys are amazing!

And then they went to the LAPD and government officials and like, you guys are doing freaking amazing, we love you! The Los Angeles Times put a photo on their front page of two zooshooters who had been beaten and stripped and captioned it, quote, unconditional surrender. The Harold Express printed instructions on how to desuute, oh yeah, quote, desuute, and it was in the newspaper. It said, grab a zooter, take off his pants, and frock coat, and tear them up or burn them. This is what they're telling the people. The sailors are responsible for starting the riots

sleep freely, but with blood on their hands, no matter what the article says. Zutsu riot, riot! So how did the media portray the riots? Did they put blame? I'm assuming here, but on the Zutsuiders? Oh my gosh, so speaking of, yeah, no, you're absolutely right. In fact, to me, one of the most shocking things

was that the LAPD, the way they responded to this, did they arrest the writers? No, they arrested the victims. Yeah. For their own safety, right? Put them in jail for their own safety. Did they ever try to stop the writers? No, they didn't, they let them go, right?

So the media was, the newspapers was fairly similar and the way they treated this That these are young people that need to be put back in their place Because they're stepping out of their boundaries. They're stepping out of their lane. They need to be put back in place They they refuse to call it a race ride. Yeah Because we don't have racial problems Los Angeles. Not us. Yeah That's that was the attitude that they had. Did the Zuzu riots like change the race relations in Los Angeles?

In the short term, what the riot did was, it was a wake up call for the city of Los Angeles that they needed to have better relations with people of color. And so they created commissions. They created, in fact, one was a four-runner of the Civil Rights Commission of the 1970s. They sought people in the various constituent communities, African-American communities, Mexican-American communities who could meet with the city and tell them what's going on

and tell them what needed to be improved. And of course, it was all about education and access to opportunity. So it provided those opportunities for more dialogue. Now change was of course much more slow than what people wanted. But I would argue that the civil rights movement of the 1950s and the 1960s couldn't have happened without the 1940s, without people starting the dialogue

about, okay, how do we do this differently? Right. How do we do this in a way that you are happier, we're happy as well. And so all of that was a four-runner to then the 60s and 70s. So that's kind of an immediate, I would argue, outcome of the Zootzu riot. Was it an open dialogue? So no one from LAPD was held accountable? No, no, no.

No. No. This is a constant that goes all the way back to the territory of the period of California. Yeah. So exhausting, though. I mean, never ends. Does it ever end?

So, what would you say are the, what are the implications of the zoot suit riots today, if any? Well, I think there are a couple of things that we learn about. Some takeaways that I would argue that, you know, one, as I suggested before that these people really represented the future. Yeah. Across the color line, they were anticipating more multicultural, interracial, social environment where people were more judged by what they had inside as opposed to what they had on the outside. And so they were the future. And in fact, I would argue, and I do argue in my book that those who write it against them and try to put them back into place, that was the past. That was the past that was trying to keep the past going. Yeah. But these young people were the future.

And that is the dark history. We never knew about when it comes to the zoo to riot. At least I didn't know it. So I wanted to share it with you guys. Now when you hear that upbeat pop classic, because I know you're probably listening to it all the time. But at least now you know that there's like a much darker side to it, to this little catchy lyrics

of theirs. I don't think the writers of history books in the 50s were looking to out their cop buddy or the military uncle for starting a race right in the middle of LA for a week. Let's continue the conversation over on Twitter using the hashtag dark history. I can't wait to talk with you.

I want to hear about what you think. What did we learn from this story? That's a great question. Because like nothing came from it, like no one really got arrested, they tried to pass a lot to ban zoots, zoots. I think there's a problem here you guys, but I would love to hear what you think. Let me know over on Twitter using hashtag dark history. If you enjoyed this story, join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes after the podcast errors and also catch murder mystery and makeup which drops

every Monday. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a wonderful so's after the podcast heirs and also catch murder mystery and makeup which drops every Monday. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and make good choices. And I'll talk to you next week. Bye. Dark History is an audio boom original. Executive produced by Chelsea Durgan from slash management, Brett Montgomery, Ed Simpson, Fanny Baudry,

Avi Gandhi, Dariel Christon, and Spencer Strasmoor from Wheelhouse, directed by Trent Barbosa, produced by Lexi Kiven, researcher Elizabeth Hyman, writers Hayley Gordon and Sarah Semino, historical consultant Eduardo Pagan. you you