On August 1965, 1 1 Wednesday, a routine traffic jam led to drunk driving arrest, which triggered a six-day riot in Watts community in Los Angeles. When all this was over, 34 people died, more than 65,438+0,000 people were injured and nearly 4,000 people were arrested.
It all started when Lee W.Minikus, an L.A. highway patrolman, stopped Marquette frie, a 2/kloc-0-year-old black man from Watts, and his brother for reckless driving. Frye failed the on-site alcohol test. As the incident happened only two blocks away from his home, his mother rushed to the scene after hearing the news and scolded him for drunk driving (in her car). A large crowd gathered, and the restless Marquette began to resist arrest.
One of the policemen pulled out a gun, and Mrs Frye jumped on her son's back, fearing for his life. Three family members were arrested. When the police car left, angry Watts residents began to * * *. When the rumor spread, the police attacked his mother Marquette and kicked his pregnant girlfriend, and the incident escalated. Watts will be in chaos for the next five days.
Of course, because this kind of thing often happens, the actual event is only a turning point. Just 20 years before the end of World War II, about 500,000 African-Americans went to cities on the west coast for the so-called "second great migration", hoping to get rid of the racial prejudice that plagued them. Unfortunately, the discrimination they face in housing, employment, education and politics is as bad as what they experienced in Detroit, Boston and new york. In fact, in terms of housing, it is estimated that 95% of the real estate in Los Angeles at that time was completely forbidden to blacks and Asians. Apart from the difficulty in finding affordable housing, it also has a negative impact on these people's educational opportunities and limits their job opportunities near home.
Although the civil rights bill was passed by 1964, many states tried to dilute or deny it, such as California's proposal 14, trying to revoke the fair housing clause of the bill. This long-simmering resentment broke out under the catalysis of the Frye family.
Thousands of African-Americans took to the streets to set fires, attack whites and rob shops.
In fact, William H. Parker, the famous police chief of Los Angeles, said that thugs are like "monkeys in the zoo", which may be useless. On Friday, California's deputy governor thought it necessary to call the National Guard. The next day, 14000 soldiers patrolled this area and the curfew was implemented.
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King arrived in Watts on August 65438, 2007. His mission is to provide support and hope for people living in this area and to support the alliance of blacks and whites working together for the cause of civil rights. So, what did Kim think of the riot? The riot not only caused 34 deaths and 1000 injuries, but also resulted in 4,000 arrests and 40 million US dollars (about 300 million US dollars today) property losses? Dr. King regretted the violence used in the riots, but quickly pointed out that the root cause was "environment, not race". The economic poverty, social isolation, inadequate housing and general despair of thousands of black people in slums in the north and west are ready-made seeds of violent tragedies. King said that the city of Los Angeles should have seen the words on the wall in an article he wrote for Saturday Review ... when its officials linked federal aid to political manipulation; When the black unemployment rate soared above the level of the Great Depression in the 1930s; When the population density of Watts became the highest in the country ...
However, as usual, Kim advocates a non-violent approach. 1966 in March, he said in front of an audience in Chicago