INTRODUCTION: Seven Years Before Wattstax Was The 1965 Watts Rebellion by Zeyna Faucette

Photo source: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-watts-riots-explainer-20150715-htmlstory.html

It all began on August 11, 1965, a large series of riots broke out known as the Watts Riots, also known as the Watts Rebellion. The riots took place in predominantly Black neighborhoods lasting for around six days. Within those six days, there were many casualties: 1,032 injured; 4,000 arrests; and 34 deaths. Over 34,00 people were involved and there was a total of $40 million in property damage.

The riots all began with a small traffic stop on a Wednesday evening. Two stepbrothers, Marquette, and Ronald Frye were pulled over by the California Highway Patrol in a Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles County. When pulled over Marquette failed his sobriety test which resulted in him resisting his arrest due to panic, causing for a fight to break out between him and one of the police officers; rushing to protect his brother Ronald joined in. A crowd soon began to form watching the two brothers get abused.

Marquette was getting harshly beaten with riot batons, and aggressively taken to the police car. At that moment his mother showed up and rushed to her son’s aid to stop the abuse he was enduring. The police retaliating against the mother causing for another altercation resulting in his mother and brother being arrested as well.

The arrest of this family caused the crowd to get rowdier. They were witnessing the disgusting reality of the cruelty Black men and women faced during their daily lives. This resulted in more police showing up and more violence breaking out. Shortly after the arrest, a full riot broke out lasting six days.

The aftermath of the Watts Riots resulted in a majority of the 34 dead being Black citizens, along with two police officers and one firefighter.

Some would say the Watts Riots stemmed from the abuse of the two boys, but the riots were long overdue. People of color have been dealing with the abuse from police for decades. They are constantly being criminalized and killed for just being Black in America. The riots came to life due to the constant dissatisfaction of the living conditions and the lack of opportunities they were given. The Watts community had become discontent with high unemployment rates and substandard housing. Bayard Rustin, a movement leader believed the cause was more personal, saying, “I think the real cause is that Negro youth – jobless, hopeless – does not feel a part of American Society.”

Work cited:

Editors, History.com. “Watts Riots.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 28 Sept. 2017, www.history.com/topics/1960s/watts-riots.

Rothman, Lily. “Watts Riots in Los Angeles 50 Years Ago: Why Did They Happen?” Time, Time, 11 Aug. 2015, time.com/3974595/watts-riot-1965-history/.

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“Annual Watts Summer Festival Has Come and Gone”: Wattstax and the Backlash Against the Watts Riots by Marina Meyjes

The National Guard became part fo the militarized effort to quell the Watts riots of 1965.

Bettman/Getty Images Photo Source: https://allthatsinteresting.com/watts-riot#7

There is no doubt that Wattstax stands as a symbol of Black solidarity in the face of state repression and police brutality. However, the 1972 concert did little to alleviate the unjust and violent policing of Black urban communities. While this perversion of the justice system had been in effect since emancipation (1865), the Watts riot served as a pivotal moment in the emergence of the militarization of the police force, and the policing and mass incarceration of men and women of color (1). There was little that a commemorative concert could do in the face of this overwhelming tide that would be so damaging to Black lives in America.

The Watts riots of 1965 saw a vicious backlash by the police force, the state of California, and the federal government. This backlash would see a rise in militarized policing of urban communities of color. In 1969, only four years after Watts, the LAPD showcased its amplified stance against urban disruption with a debut of their SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team. The team conducted a raid on the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party, complete with a battering ram, tank and helicopter. Around two decades later, in 1988, the head of the District Attorney’s Hardcore Drugs Unit would announce his war on Los Angeles crime as “Vietnam here,” (2) demonstrating American military terrorization of insurgents both abroad and at home.

At the same time, a political backlash following Watts was in the works. In the 1966 California gubernatorial elections, a year after the riots, Ronald Reagan denounced urban

Footnotes:

1. Donna Murch, “The Many Meanings of of Watts: Black Power, Wattstax and the Carceral State,” in OAH Magazine of History, Vol 26, No 1, (Oxford University Press, 2012), 38.

2. Ibid., 38.

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uprisings and campus rebellions and was met with great success. In a continuation of this theme, a focal point of Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign, and a reason for his success, was his stance against riots and crime. The backlash against Watts and other urban riots that followed had supplied this New Right with fodder that justified the policing and mass incarceration of men and women of color (3).

The Los Angeles Sentinel, L.A.’s largest Black newspaper, issued an article on August 31st, entitled “Annual Watts Summer Festival Has Come and Gone,” where Wattstax was dismissed as a “diversionary tactic,” that had done little to tackle the problems facing the ghetto (4). While this disparaging response does not do proper justice to the triumphs of Wattstax, such as the money it raised for causes of the Black community and its celebration of Black pride, the Sentinel article does aptly express the concert’s lack of power in creating any meaningful or lasting change.

Footnotes:

3. Donna Murch, “The Many Meanings of of Watts: Black Power, Wattstax and the Carceral State,” in OAH Magazine of History, Vol 26, No 1, (Oxford University Press, 2012), 39.

4. Gina Arnold, Half a Million Strong: Crowds and Power from Woodstock to Coachella, (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2018), 94-95.

Works cited:

Arnold, Gina. Half a Million Strong: Crowds and Power from Woodstock to Coachella. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2018.

Much, Donna. “The Many Meanings of of Watts: Black Power, Wattstax and the Carceral State.” In OAH Magazine of History, Vol 26, No 1. Oxford University Press, 2012.