Zoot Suit Riots
1943 Los Angeles violence
The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of violent clashes in Los Angeles in June 1943, when white servicemen attacked young Mexican American men wearing zoot suits—high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed trousers with long coats.
The flamboyant style was seen as unpatriotic during wartime fabric rationing.
The name is sometimes invoked for ethnic tensions or mob violence against minority youth: The incident felt like a modern zoot suit riot.
- high-waisted pantsTrousers with elevated waistband
- Mexican AmericanU.S. citizen with southern neighbor roots
- racial profilingLaw enforcement by skin color
- racial segregationSeparation by ethnic background
- mob violenceGroup-inflicted harm
street fights · World War II · scapegoating · swing music · swing dancing · wartime propaganda · internment camps · jazz influences · young men · police brutality · counterculture · wartime industries · systemic inequality · civil rights movements · youth rebellion · military culture · prejudice · social hierarchies
Zoot Suit Riotslabor strikes
Workers collectively stopping work
March on Washington · Montgomery Bus Boycott · sit-ins · peaceful protest · nonviolent resistance
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