WATTS UPRISING (1965) Photo archive

Np: United Press International, 1965. Set of five vintage original 8 x 10″ (20 x 25 cm) black-and-white photos, a few tiny tears, overall just about fine.

The Watts Uprising (sometimes labeled as the “Watts Riots”) took place in the Watts neighborhood and its surrounding areas of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965. These events were motivated by anger at the racist and abusive practices of the Los Angeles Police Department, as well as grievances over employment discrimination, residential segregation, and poverty in L.A.

On August 11, 1965, Marquette Frye, a 21-year-old black man, was pulled over for drunk driving. After he failed a field sobriety test, officers attempted to arrest him. Marquette resisted arrest, with assistance from his mother, Rena Frye; a physical confrontation ensued in which Marquette was struck in the face with a baton. Meanwhile, a crowd of onlookers had gathered. Rumors spread that the police had kicked a pregnant woman who was present at the scene. Six days of civil unrest followed, motivated in part by allegations of police abuse. Nearly 14,000 members of the California Army National Guard helped suppress the disturbance, which resulted in 34 deaths, as well as over $40 million in property damage. It was the city’s worst unrest until the Rodney King riots of 1992. (Wikipedia)

The five photos portray:

• 8/13/65: National Guardsmen complete a roadblock to entrance to the Watts district, here described as “no-man’s land”.
• 8/13/65: Looters carrying clothes and goods from a store.
• 8/14/65: From caption: “The U.S. Mail goes through as a Negro postman walks down the center of 103rd Street in the Watts area… following the worst Negro outburst in the nation’s history in two decades. Rioting was finally quelled late 8/13 by 2,000 rifle-carrying National Guardsmen and shotgun-armed police”.
• 8/14/65: A National Guard jeep patrols a devastated 103rd Street in Watts.
• 8/15/65: California Governor Pat Brown talks with African American men as he tours the heavily devastated Watts area.