Previous coverage: Zoot Suit Riots - Los Angeles Times
Advertisement

Previous coverage: Zoot Suit Riots

A man in a suit is escorted to a police car
Police officers take a young man in a zoot suit into custody.
(Bettmann Archive)
Share via

The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of racist attacks on the Mexican, Black and Filipino communities of Los Angeles during the first week of June 1943. For six nights, military servicemen and civilians took to the streets to beat, harass and humiliate anyone who wore the baggy, flamboyant suits that were donned by some of the biggest jazz musicians of the era.

Note: The Times’ digital archives go back only to 1984. Any coverage before that year will not appear in this list of stories.

Read more
Advertisement