A 1965 Failure That Still Haunts America
Julian Zelizer – CNN
When racial conflict flared in Ferguson, Missouri, this summer it brought back terrible memories of what happened nearly 50 years ago, in the summer of 1965…. President Lyndon Johnson, who had been riding high from a wave of legislative victories, couldn’t believe what he was hearing was taking place in Watts….
The riots caused tension with civil rights leaders, who were eager for Johnson to deal more aggressively with issues like police brutality and economic despair. On August 20, Johnson told Martin Luther King that he was telling everyone the government needed to “correct these conditions,” like housing and unemployment. King was frustrated….
In the end, the riots did not result in any major changes in policy. The only major outcome following two more riots in 1967 (in Detroit and Newark) would be an independent commission…
The Kerner Commission issued its landmark report in 1968, concluding: “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledges the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial for his “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington, D.C. in this file photo of Aug. 28, 1963. (AP)
What the Watts Riots Could Teach Us About Future Fergusons
John McWorter – Time
Watts kicked off a series of black-led urban riots in what came to be called the “long, hot summers.” Previously, race riots had almost always entailed white thugs streaming into black neighborhoods, as seen in the famous Tulsa race riots of 1921. Only in the wake of Watts did the norm become black people burning down their own neighborhoods in response to white offenses….
In this Aug. 13, 1965 file photo, men carry items from a looted store during the rioting that enveloped the Watts district of Los Angeles, CA. (AP)
But after the dust cleared, it became clear that these riots did nothing for black America. Many white storeowners didn’t reopen their stores in black downtowns, resulting in the desolate, dangerous wastelands that so many urban downtowns became, furnishing the grounds for further miseries….
Unlike the Watts Riots, the recent protests starting with the one in Ferguson are bearing actual fruit. The injustice of how much easier it is to be killed by a policeman if one is black than white is now on the nation’s mind in a way that it never has been before….But our new protesters must not replicate the excesses of the “long, hot summers” riots. Too often, the Ferguson protests paralleled the Watts ones in burning down black businesses as well as other ones. In general, future protests should be not only peaceful, but also very strictly goal-oriented, focused on the arrest of obviously guilty cops, calls for body cameras where none are being used, and perhaps independent oversight panels.
In this Aug. 14, 1965 file photo, firefighters battle a blaze set in a shoe store during rioting in the Watts district of Los Angeles, CA. (AP)
Watts: Remember What They Built, Not What They Burned
Robin D.G. Kelley – Los Angeles Times
Anger may have sparked the pre-1965 protests, but organization sustained them. Besides the civil rights committee and NAACP, the Urban League, the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations, the Congress of Racial Equality and the Non-Violent Action Committee were all active in South L.A., advancing civil rights priorities. Meanwhile, groups such as the Westminster Neighborhood Assn., the Welfare Action and Community Organization, and the Watts Labor Community Action Committee focused on the more immediate needs of black working people.
These groups succeeded in mobilizing large segments of the black community, but they produced very few policy changes. Unemployment, poor housing and police brutality reached a crisis point. Between 1963 and ’65, police killed 60 African Americans — 25 were unarmed and 27 were shot in the back….
In short, Watts was no urban wasteland. Despite poverty and discrimination, a dynamic civil society prevailed. The rebellion grew not from chaos but from a mobilized community seeking change.