[Watts Uprising]

The Watts Uprising was a five-day riot that occurred in Watts, California in 1965. During the 1960s, the southern Los Angeles town of Watts was primarily a low-income Black population that had arrived from Southern states during the second Great Migration. The town was plagued a long-standing antagonism between the residents and the police due to discriminatory practices. These tensions came to a head on August 11, 1966 when an altercation broke out with Marqutte Frye, who resisted arrest for suspicion of driving under the influence. Witnessing Marquette's struggle, Ronald and Rena, the brother and mother of Frye, tried to intervene, catching the attention of their neighbors. What started as a blockade against more police forces quickly swelled into a full-blown riot by the next day with looting, arson, gunfire, and ultimately $40 million worth of property damage. The riots intensified and continued into the next week until the National Guard patrols arrived on Saturday and a curfew was placed. Many of the conservative opponents believed the violence to be a result of Black Muslim extremism and a climactic event of the uprising was the storming of a Black mosque on the final day, resulting in the mosque's destruction.

In total, there were over 1,000 injuries and 34 fatalities, mostly at the hands of the police and National Guard patrols. Martin Luther King Jr. arrived on the scene to the mostly quelled situation to serve as a mediator between the residents of Watts and the L.A. lawmakers. He addressed the riots as a plight of the socioeconomic status of the town, rather than an issue of race, and urged Lyndon B. Johnson to begin poverty alleviation throughout L.A.. While the Watts Uprising officially ended on August 16th, the aftershock of the event would continue throughout the 20th century in the form of more violence and riots without the proper foundational and institutional restructuring.