In 1943, white servicemen attacked Mexican-American youths amid rising racial tensions in Los Angeles in the now infamous Zoot Suit Riots.
Sailors in the armed forces patrol the streets with clubs, ready to fight anyone they see in a zoot suit.Los Angeles. 1943.
Library of Congress A group of Hispanic teenagers, members of the "zoot suit" culture.Los Angeles. 1943.
Bettmann/Getty Images A brawl breaks out. A man in a fedora and a US serviceman beat each other with bats.Los Angeles. 1943.
UCLA Library A friendlier soldier checks out a man's zoot suit.Los Angeles. 1942.
Library of Congress Two men, after being stripped of their zoot suits and beaten by US servicemen, lay bleeding on the sidewalk.Los Angeles. June 1943.
Anthony Potter Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images A teenaged boy, Vincent Duarte, lies in a hospital bed after being brutally beaten for going out in a zoot suit.Los Angeles. 1943.
Los Angeles Public Library A sailor named Donald Jackson gets medical help after a vicious brawl on the streets. His abdomen was slashed in the fighting.Los Angeles. 1943.
Los Angeles Public Library Los Angeles policemen question men in zoot suits, asking for their draft credentials to see where they stand in the battle with US servicemen.Los Angeles. June 1943.
Bettmann/Getty Images US Servicemen on patrol, looking for what they call "panchos" — in other words, Mexicans — to beat up.Los Angeles. June 1943.
Bettmann/Getty Images Two men, stripped of their clothes, lie beaten on the ground. They have been attacked by US Army men for going out in zoot suits.Los Angeles. June 1943.
Anthony Potter Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Bettie Morgan after being mugged and cut up by a group of young Mexicans associated with the zoot suit gangs.Los Angeles. 1943.
Los Angeles Public Library Police officers carry away a young man in a zoot suit.Los Angeles. June 1943.
Bettmann/Getty Images Two young zoot suiters, handcuffed together, are dragged off to prison.Los Angeles. June 1943.
Bettmann/Getty Images A zoot suiter, his head bandaged and his suit gone, is carried off by the police.Los Angeles. 1943.
Library of Congress A wounded marine, Robert Egan, shows off the fractured skull he suffered during the fighting.Los Angeles. 1943.
Los Angeles Public Library A line of men wait for the bus that will take them to the courthouse, where they await charges for rioting.Los Angeles. 1943.
Library of Congress Police officers hold up weapons confiscated from men in zoot suits.Los Angeles. 1942.
Los Angeles Public Library Suspects in the José Gallardo Díaz murder trial that sparked the riots are lead into court.Los Angeles. 1943.
Los Angeles Public Library The girlfriend of one of the men charged in the murder of José Gallardo Díaz bursts into tears after he receives a guilty verdict.Los Angeles. 1943.
Los Angeles Public Library A group of men, accused of leading other boys into a riot, sit in the courtroom.Los Angeles. 1943.
Los Angeles Public Library Zoot suit wearers accused of being in a gang stand in a lineup.Los Angeles. 1943.
Los Angeles Public Library A group of girls, accused of gang violence, stand in a lineup.Los Angeles. 1943.
Los Angeles Public Library A crowd of zoot suiters behind bars.Los Angeles. 1943.
UCLA Library A massive line of suspects charged with the murder of José Gallardo Díaz are sworn in at court.Los Angeles. 1942.
Los Angeles Public Library An entire courtroom full of defendants are sworn in following the riots.Los Angeles. 1943.
Los Angeles Public Library A group of zoot suiters wait in their jail cell.Los Angeles. 1943.
Los Angeles Public Library Robert Telles, after being exonerated for the murder of José Gallardo Díaz.Los Angeles. 1944.
UCLA Library The boys falsely charged in the murder of José Gallardo Díaz are released.Los Angeles. 1943.
UCLA Library
The Zoot Suit Riots: When Fashion And Racism Erupted Into Violence View GallerySometimes, fashion is something you have to fight for.
In the summer of 1943, Los Angeles erupted in a series of brawls and beatings known today as the Zoot Suit Riots. The fighting broke out between two different sides of America. On one end were white American servicemen and on the other were Mexican-, African-, and Filipino-American youths who were given to wearing the oversized zoot suits that were so fashionable at the time.
These zoot suits were long, baggy, and took an awful lot of fabric to make. Those who wore them saw this as hip and fashionable, but some servicemen only saw a waste of fabric during wartime, when rationing was more important than ever. To them, these zoot suits were practically treason.
At first, the suits prompted nothing more than a little hostility and the odd spat – but racist tensions heated up after a Mexican boy named José Gallardo Díaz was mysteriously found dead with a fractured skull. The courts threw the blame on a group of Mexican youth associated with wearing zoot suits despite there being little to no evidence. In the mind of white American, Mexican teens, especially those in zoot suits, thus became linked with gang warfare.
From then on, things would get violent. In June of 1943, servicemen started walking down the streets of Los Angeles with clubs in their hands, looking for young men in zoot suits to hurt. Some servicemen beat their victims right there in the streets, others tore off their victims' clothes and burned them in piles. One group pulled a Mexican in front of a crowd, tore off his zoot suit, and urinated on it.
The zoot suiters did their share of fighting, too. Some would start fist-fights with sailors who tried to flirt with Mexican girls. Others took advantage of the chaos to mug people; in one case, threatening to cut off a woman's finger unless she handed over her engagement ring.
When the police moved in, though, they arrested far more Mexicans than servicemen. About 500 Latino youths were brought into rapidly overflowing prisons.
Things calmed down in time. The boys accused of Diaz's death were exonerated, a bigger race riot in Detroit took over the nation's attention, and the fighting over fashion (at least ostensibly) died down.
After this look at the Zoot Suit Riots, experience the riots that broke out across America during the gay rights movement. Then, see the worst riots in American history.
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