ANSWER – Los Angeles
Statement on the 40th Anniversary of Watts Rebellion
This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Watts Rebellion
in Los Angeles. On the night of August 11, 1965 LAPD officers brutalized
brothers Marquette and Ronald Frye and then brutalized their mother Rena
when she tried to stop the officers. Hundreds of people witnessed the
beatings.
Within hours thousands of people from the Black community took over the
streets. They fought the police and burned down and looted white owned
businesses for the next six days. The tiny numbers of black-owned
businesses in South Central LA were left untouched.
The rebellion was a response to rampant police brutality,
institutionalized racism and the extreme social and economic oppression
directed at the black community. The black community in Los Angeles and
around the country suffered wide spread unemployment, impoverishment and
discrimination. 34% of black adults were unemployed in Watts in 1965.
Tommy Jacquette, a participant in the rebellion, was recently
interviewed in the Los Angeles Times. This is what he had to say on the
anniversary of the uprising:
“People keep calling it a riot, but we call it a revolt because it had a
legitimate purpose. It was a response to police brutality and social
exploitation of a community and of a people … People said that we burned
down our community. No, we didn’t. We had a revolt in our community
against those people who were in here trying to exploit and oppress us
…We did not own this community. We did not own the businesses in this
community. We did not own the majority of the housing in this community
… Some people want to know if it was really worth it. I think anytime
people stand up for their rights, it’s worth it.”
The oppression against the black community was severe and buttressed by
violence and the constant threat of violence. Right-wing racists groups
like the John Birch Society, the Minutemen, Neo-Nazis and the KKK sought
to terrorize South Central Los Angeles. All of these groups were well
represented in the ranks of the LAPD.
To crush the rebellion 16,000 National Guard, LAPD officers and county
sheriffs were mobilized. 4,000 people were rounded up; 1,000 people were
injured; and 34 people were killed. The rebellion terrified the white
business elite of Los Angeles and the US and led to numerous
concessions, including affirmative action, the building of better
schools and the establishment of King/Drew hospital. Today King/Drew
hospital, which provides badly needed medical treatment to mostly Blacks
and Latinos in South Central Los Angeles, is being threatened with
closure.
The economic and social conditions for Blacks and Latinos in South
Central LA are the same today as they were in 1965. The LAPD continues
to be dominated by racist policies and is still home to members of
openly racist groups. The recent LAPD murders of Devin Brown and Susie
Lopez Pena, among many others, are part and parcel of a deeply unequal
system. The opulence of Beverly Hills, the enormous wealth of huge multi-national
corporations and the poverty of South Central Los Angeles continue to
exist side by side. The LAPD serve to protect the status quo through
organized force. Millions of Blacks and Latinos are locked up in US
prisons.
Under these conditions, the only option open to the Black, Latino and
immigrant communities of South Central Los Angeles in their search for
justice and equality is to fight back.
The billions being spent on the war on Iraq and the billions of dollars
of profits lining the pockets of President Bush and his fellow white
elites must be redistributed to communities like South Central LA that
have suffered the most from a long history of exploitation, segregation,
severe repression and daily abuse. In the months and years ahead,
supporting the right of the people of South Central Los Angeles and
everywhere to fight back in any way they choose will be crucial in
forging real unity in our common struggle to end war and racism.
August 11, 2005
ANSWER - LA |
