Prompt for Paper 4: The Watts Riots

The Watts Riots

In August 1965, the Watts area of Los Angeles exploded as Black Americans raged and rioted against their second-class status in America. The event that triggered the so-called Watts Riots was a simple traffic stop. A young man was pulled over by a Highway Patrol motorcycle officer for possible drunken driving. A crowd gathered, the driver’s mother was called to come witness the event, and within 24 hours the National Guard had been called in to patrol the streets of Los Angeles. A simple traffic stop turned into to an explosive release of frustration and anger. 

Your assignment is to research and write a paper exploring the underlying reasons for the Riots You must select one of two topics to investigate. When you’ve done your research, you will write a 1250-1600-word paper that will use your research to shed light on the fury that riveted America’s eyes on Watts on August 15, 1965. To write your paper, you must use information from at least five sources: three books or studies on the underlying causes; at least one in-depth article from a periodical; at least one video file. You will use MLA formatting and citation standards. You will type your paper, which is due Thursday, July 2, the last day of class. You will turn in a hard copy of your paper in class on that day. You will also email a copy of your paper to tomp99@earthlink.net. If you are unable to finish your paper by July 2, you can email the paper to me by Sunday, July 5 at noon. Five points will be deducted from late papers. Papers that arrive after noon will not be accepted.

1. Relations between the police in Los Angeles and Black citizens were at best tense. Residents of Watts felt that so-called “police brutality” was business as usual for an overwhelmingly white police force who lack of respect for non-white citizens was driven by deep-seeded racism. Your research will explore these problems, identifying the people, the policies, the actions, and the events that shaped the state of affairs. Your research might examine the political forces in LA at the time of the Watts Riots, including Mayor Sam Yorty, Police Chief William Parker, the NAACP, and The LA Times. What was the racial makeup of the LAPD? How did the department define its role in policing non-white communities? Who were Black community leaders and what role did they play? 

2. It is relatively simple to pinpoint confrontations involving the police, but discrimination against Black citizens often played out in subtle if equally painful ways. Investigate the restrictive covenants that prevented Black people from buying houses beyond certain boundaries. How were these covenants enforced? How many residents of Watts owned their homes? Examine the role that banks played in enforcing segregation, including the so-called “red-lining?” Were banks willing to invest in the Black community? Were banks more willing to lend to white working class residents than Black?  Consider the impact such “ghettoization” had on Watts?