UNSCRIPTED: Watts RIOTS 1965 How 6 days changed our country for better/worse?
Unscripted
By Keith Edmonds
FWIS Contributing Writer
“On August 11, 1965, Marquette Frye, a 21-year-old Black man, was pulled over for drunk driving. After he failed a field sobriety test, officers attempted to arrest him. Marquette resisted arrest, (with assistance from his mother, Rena Frye). Things became very physical which led to Marquette being struck in the face with a baton. Meanwhile, a crowd of onlookers watched as things developed, and rumors spread that the police also kicked a pregnant woman who was present at the scene. Six days of civil unrest followed, motivated in part by allegations of police abuse”.... This lead to what is commonly referred to as the Watts Riots or Watts Rebellion”...
My grandmother used to share with me how tough things used to be “back in the day” and how people of color have always been marginalized and neglected, but after doing my research on this piece, I gained a whole new perspective on what bad times really looked like! To understand what started the Watts Riots we have to go back (way back) to what is commonly called the Second Great Migration in which Black workers and families migrated from cities such as Detroit, Chicago, and Cincinnati to the West Coast in large numbers, in response to the defense industry recruitment efforts at the start of World War II.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 directing defense contractors not to discriminate in hiring or promotions, opening up new opportunities for minorities. So why is this significant? Great question! Let me tell you. Due to this migration west the Black population in California (namely Los Angeles) dramatically rose from approximately 63,700 in 1940 to about 350,000 in 1965. This raised the city’s Black population from 4% to 14%, which was huge! Black people (as many of you may know) were not looked upon kindly during this era as they just wanted their “piece of the pie” and began to move into areas such as “Little Tokyo and Compton, (areas that had been exclusively white) to carve out their middle class dream away from areas that were “slums” and pursue a new way of life in white suburbia. Whites, who had previously made up over 90% of those suburbs were now feeling threatened by large numbers of Black people moving in (sound familiar?) and tensions grew...
On the night of August 11, 1965, Marquette Frye, a 21-year-old Black man, was pulled over for drunk driving by an officer named Lee Minikus. After he failed a field sobriety test, officers attempted to arrest him. Marquette resisted and Minikus radioed for his vehicle to be impounded. Marquette's brother Ronald, a passenger in the vehicle, walked to their house nearby, and brought their mother Rena Price back with him to the scene of the arrest.
When Rena Price reached the scene of the arrest and scolded Frye about drinking and driving, the situation quickly escalated into something more. Someone shoved Price, and Frye was struck. Price jumped at an officer, and another officer pulled out a shotgun. Backup police officers attempted to arrest Frye by using physical force to subdue him. After community members reported that police had roughed up Frye and shared a rumor they had kicked a pregnant woman, angry mobs formed, and they began yelling and throwing objects at the officers. Frye's mother and brother fought with the officers and eventually were arrested along with Marquette Frye. Police tried to break up the scene that evening but were unsuccessful. This lead to the National Guard being called and one city official described it as “the riots resembled an insurgency, it could be compared to fighting the Viet Cong, and we needed a "paramilitary" response to the disorder. Governor Pat Brown described it as law enforcement confronting "guerrillas fighting with gangsters".
The rioting intensified, and on Friday, August 13, 1965, about 2,300 National Guardsmen joined the police in trying to maintain order on the streets of Watts which resembled an all-out war zone in some far-off foreign country; and bore no resemblance to the United States of America. Wow! Over the course of six days, between 31,000 and 35,000 adults participated in the riots. There were 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries, 3,438 arrests, and over $40 million in property damage. 769 buildings and businesses were damaged and looted and 208 buildings were completely destroyed! White Americans began to be fearful of the breakdown of social order in Watts, as many motorists were being pulled over by rioters in nearby areas and assaulted. So, if you’re asking me why did this happen? Many believe the rioters were taking part in an "uprising against an oppressive system” which is hard to argue against!
So, what was the end result of all of the rioting, looting, property damages and injury and the “key” people who sparked the outrage? Marquette Frye was convicted of drunk driving, battery, and malicious mischief. On February 18, 1966, he received a sentence of 90 days in county jail and three years’ probation. He also received another 90-day jail term after a jury convicted him of battery and disturbing the peace on May 18, 1966. Over a 10-year period following the riots, he was arrested 34 times! He died of pneumonia on December 20, 1986, at age 42. His mother, Rena Price, died on June 10, 2013, at age 97 and she never recovered the impounded 1955 Buick which her son had been driving because the storage fees exceeded the car's value. Motorcycle officer Lee Minikus died on October 19, 2013, at age 79.
As a nation we still are battling the very same issues some 60 years later (look no further than the George Floyd incident of 2020) and though tremendous strides and changes have been made, unrest and uncertainty remain in our country regarding racial inequalities! This particular incident remains in our history as precedent to how people of color were oppressed then, and in many instances more so today!