Zoot Suit Riots Lesson Plan - APUSH - APUSH
Zoot Suit Riots Lesson PlanCentral Historical Question:What caused the Zoot Suit Riots?Materials: Copies of Documents A and B Copies of Graphic OrganizerPlan of Instruction:1. Mini Lecture During the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), 1 million people emigrated fromMexico to the U.S Southwest. Tens of thousands more arrived in the 1920s.Combined with the descendants of Mexicans living in the Southwest before 1848,by the late 1930s there were about 3 million Mexicans and Mexican Americans inthe country. Los Angeles had the largest Mexican-American community of anyU.S. city. By the 1940s, Mexican-American urban youth had formed styles of speech anddress that were neither traditionally Mexican nor traditionally American. Zoot suits were a type of fashion worn by some urban youth and were popularamong Mexican Americans. Some adults saw the flashiness of the zoot suits asexcessive. Among white servicemen the suits were seen as even antagonisticand un-American. In the 1940s, Mexican Americans continued to face racial segregation inschooling, housing, movie theaters, restaurants, swimming pools, and more.They also faced severe discrimination in employment and by the criminal justicesystem. The Bracero Program, a program to import Mexican workers to fill the largeagricultural labor shortage during WWII, began in 1942. The need to ensure anagricultural labor supply turned out to be the U.S. government’s main concern inresponding to the Zoot Suit Riots. The majority of service men and women stationed in LA during the riots werewhite. The riots occurred 6 months after the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial, a controversialcase that involved Los Angeles police detaining 600 Mexican-Americanteenagers in response to finding one Mexican-American teenager dead andsuspected to be murdered. The trial violated due process and was seen by many Mexican Americans asunjust. 22 Mexican-American teens were found guilty. The trial was overturnedseveral years later, and all of the accused were released. Rioting occurred in May and June 1943 in Los Angeles. The June riots lastedseveral days in Los Angeles. Thousands of servicemen participated in theattacks in which they targeted Mexican-American youth with beatings and racialSTANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUPsheg.stanford.edu
slurs and stripped them of their zoot suits. Some Filipino and African-Americanyouth were also among those attacked.The police arrested more than 500 Mexican Americans. No servicemen werearrested. The incident set off a wave of attacks against Latinos/as in seven otherU.S. cities.Today we will try to answer the question: What caused the Zoot Suit Riots?2. Hand out Documents A and B and Graphic Organizer. In pairs, students fill inGraphic Organizer.3. Discussion: According to Document A, who caused the riots? (pachucos) According to Document B, who caused the riots? (servicemen and thepress) Is one more reliable than the other? Does Document A support the claim that the press was, in fact, “decidedlyinflammatory”? How? Why did the Coordinator of Latin American Youth decide to send atelegram to the Office of War Information? What does this tell you aboutthe seriousness of the riots? How could this have affected U.S.-Mexicorelations? How did the context of WWII influence the riots? What more would you want to know about this time period to understandwhat happened better?CitationsDocument A“Near Martial Law in L.A. Riot Zones,” Los Angeles Daily News, June 9, 1943.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/eng sfeature/sf press text 05.htmlDocument B“The Battle Between Marines and Pachucos,” La Opinión, June 9, ts.media.1943.htm Copyright 2009, Avishag Reisman and Bradley Fogo.STANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUPsheg.stanford.edu
Document A (Modified)Near-martial law in L.A. riot zonesLos Angeles Daily NewsJune 9, 1943Harold Tabor, 32, Long Beach sailor, was severely beaten by a gang of zooters at103rd and Graham St. He suffered a broken nose and serious facial cuts."I was passing a poolhall on the way to a grocery store when the gang hopped (jumped)me, " he said.Two soldiers and a Negro zoot suiter were taken into custody after a riot at the corner ofSecond and Spring streets. Police continued to search for others. Police orderedgroups of more than three to "break it up" everywhere in the downtown area. Policeofficers were stationed on every corner and the city resembled martial law rule. Squadsof riot breakers roamed the city, trying to solve the zoot suit problem.Navy shore patrol officers walked in and out of bars, dancehalls, drugstores, busstations.One of the most serious outbreaks of terrorism occurred in Watts. There, three trainswere stoned by pachucos. One person was cut seriously. A few minutes later, nearlyevery window of an outbound Long Beach two-car train was smashed when it wascaught in a crossfire of pachuco stoning.Gangsterism in Watts continued into the early hours of today. Twelve Negroesambushed a 17-year-old white high school student, asked him if he was a "zoot suiter"and when he said "no" the fight started. The victim, Joe M. Steddum of 8834 BandersSt., Watts, received a five-inch cut on his left forehead.A Navy commander of the 11th Naval district in San Diego stated the following:"Until further notice, except for special occasions approved by the commanding officer,the city of Los Angeles will be out of bounds for all enlisted personnel of the navalservices not attached to the stations within this city, or in travel status.Zoot suiters are being arrested in all parts of L.A. County. Many have been caught withweapons such as knives hidden in their pants. Many sailors and servicemen havevictims of violence and casualties from the pachuco hoodlums.Vocabularypachuco: Mexican-American zoot suiterSTANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUPsheg.stanford.edu
Document B (Modified)The Battle Between Marines and PachucosLa OpiniónJune 9, 1943The Coordinator of Latin-American Youths . . . informed us . . . that during a meeting inwhich the situation created by the riots between the "pachucos" and the marines wasdiscussed, a decision was reached to send the following telegram to the Head of theOffice of War Information in Washington and to the Head of the Division of ForeignLanguages, of the same office, and to President Roosevelt at the White House. Here isthe message:Since last Thursday evening various groups of marines and soldiers have attackedMexican zoot suiters throughout the city of Los Angeles. Although the youth did nothingto provoke the attack or for that matter to resist the attack, many were severelywounded, including women and children. Supposedly the attack has been motivated bypast conflicts between the two groups and has been amplified by the press claiming thatMexican youths have been disrespectful toward the servicemen, a claim without anyfoundation.Despite precautions taken on the part of the military police and local authorities tocontrol the situation, the servicemen continue to walk the streets of Los Angeles armedwith clubs and appear to be tacitly supported by many city and local officials in chargeof keeping the peace; their attacks have now expanded to include blacks. This situation,which is prompting racial antagonism between the Mexican, Anglo-Saxon and Blackcommunities will undoubtedly have grave international repercussions which willinevitably damage the war effort and thwart the gains made by the Good Neighborpolicy. We urge immediate intervention by the Office of War Information so that itmoderates the local press which has openly approved of these mutinies and which istreating this situation in a manner that is decidedly inflammatory.VocabularyGood Neighbor Policy: Foreign policy adopted by the U.S. under President FranklinRoosevelt in which the U.S. said it would not intervene in Latin American countries’affairs.mutiny: rebellion by soldiers against the orders of their officersSTANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUPsheg.stanford.edu
What Caused the Zoot Suit Riots?LA Daily NewsLa OpiniónSource it!Who wrote it?What do you predictthey will say aboutthe Zoot Suit Riots?According to thisdocument, whatcaused the Zoot SuitRiots?Who is to blame forthe violence?What evidence dothey use to supportthis reason? Providea quote from thedocument.Using evidence from both of these documents, write a paragraph on the back of thissheet that explains what caused the Zoot Suit Riots.STANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUPsheg.stanford.edu
Zoot suits were a type of fashion worn by some urban youth and were popular among Mexican Americans. Some adults saw the flashiness of the zoot suits as excessive. Among white servicemen the suits were seen as even antagonistic and un-American. In the 1940s, Mexican Americans continued to face racial segregation inFile Size: 729KBPage Count: 5
Mexican “zoot-suit” riots. The zoot suit was a style of dress adopted by Mexican-American youths as a symbol of their rebellion against tradition. It consisted of a long jacket and pleated pants. Broad-brimmed hats were often worn with the suits. The riots began when 11 sailors in Los Angeles reported being attacked by zoot-suit-wearing .
Read the newspaper articles from the Zoot Suit Riots at this website to learn how the media using yellow journalism misrepresented Pachuco youth and caused negative repercussions. Read the articles with the members of your group. Focus on the headlines, events, criminals, victims and police response as you read each one.
The riots began when 11 sailors in Los Angeles reported that they had been attacked by zoot-suit-wear-ing Mexican Americans. This charge triggered vio-lence involving thousands of servicemen and civilians. Mobs poured into Mexican neighborhoods and grabbed any zoot-suiters they could find. The attackers ripped off their victims’ clothes and .
Zoot Suit Riots between sailors and soldiers and Mexican American youth gangs. On June 3, 1943, a group of servicemen on leave complained that they had been assaulted by a gang of pachucos. The headed to east LA where they attacked all the men they found wearing zoot suits, often ripping off the suits and burning them in the streets.
We use primary sources for learning as this is a serious show about history and then if I guess the author wrong, I get shocked. Okay, what do we got today? . And white people's fear over minority groups contributed to race riots in Detroit and the Zoot Suit Riots against Mexicans in Los Angeles in 1943. Not just a song by the Cherry Poppin .
riots were indicative of the injustices of racial stereotyping and prejudices. They were a precursor to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. But the perception of many Americans was that the “zoot suit” riots were to be blamed only on youthful gangs in the Mexican-American and African-American communities. That perception would
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