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    Zoot Suit Powerpoint

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    The document discusses the Zoot Suit Riots that occurred in Los Angeles in 1943. It provides background information on the tensions between Mexican American youth and white servicemen in LA during this time. Mexican Americans faced discrimination and their zoot suits were seen as excessive. The riots lasted several days with thousands of servicemen attacking and stripping Mexican American youth of their zoot suits. Over 500 Mexican Americans were arrested by police despite servicemen being the instigators of the violence. The riots spread to other cities and heightened tensions.

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    Zoot Suit Powerpoint

    Uploaded by

    api-317148332
    358 views10 pages
    The document discusses the Zoot Suit Riots that occurred in Los Angeles in 1943. It provides background information on the tensions between Mexican American youth and white servicemen in LA during this time. Mexican Americans faced discrimination and their zoot suits were seen as excessive. The riots lasted several days with thousands of servicemen attacking and stripping Mexican American youth of their zoot suits. Over 500 Mexican Americans were arrested by police despite servicemen being the instigators of the violence. The riots spread to other cities and heightened tensions.

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    The document discusses the Zoot Suit Riots that occurred in Los Angeles in 1943. It provides background information on the tensions between Mexican American youth and white servicemen in LA during this time. Mexican Americans faced discrimination and their zoot suits were seen as excessive. The riots lasted several days with thousands of servicemen attacking and stripping Mexican American youth of their zoot suits. Over 500 Mexican Americans were arrested by police despite servicemen being the instigators of the violence. The riots spread to other cities and heightened tensions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    358 views10 pages

    Zoot Suit Powerpoint

    Uploaded by

    api-317148332
    The document discusses the Zoot Suit Riots that occurred in Los Angeles in 1943. It provides background information on the tensions between Mexican American youth and white servicemen in LA during this time. Mexican Americans faced discrimination and their zoot suits were seen as excessive. The riots lasted several days with thousands of servicemen attacking and stripping Mexican American youth of their zoot suits. Over 500 Mexican Americans were arrested by police despite servicemen being the instigators of the violence. The riots spread to other cities and heightened tensions.

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    THE CHICANO

    MOVEMENT
    Lesson 2
    The Fashionable Riots

    Its all about the style


    By the 1940s, Mexican-American urban

    youth had formed styles of speech and


    dress that were neither traditionally
    Mexican nor traditionally American.
    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 unAmerican.

    Some Jaime Crow


    In the 1940s, Mexican Americans continued to face racial

    segregation in schooling, housing, movie theaters, restaurants,


    swimming pools, and more.
    They also faced severe discrimination in employment and by

    the criminal justice system.


    Los Angeles had the largest Mexican-American community of

    any U.S. city.


    The majority of service men and women stationed in LA during

    the riots were white.


    They came from all over the U.S. and for some it was their first

    exposure to Mexican Americans

    Important factors
    The Bracero Program

    began in 1942
    A program to import

    Mexican workers to fill


    the large agricultural
    labor shortage during
    WWII.
    It became the main
    concern of the U.S.
    government for
    responding to the Zoot
    Suit Riots.

    Not so Sleepy
    after all
    The riots occurred 6 months after the Sleepy Lagoon

    murder trial
    a controversial case that involved LA police detaining 600 Mexican-

    American teenagers in response to finding one Mexican-American


    teenager dead and suspected to have been murdered.

    The trial violated due process and was seen by many

    Mexican Americans as unjust.


    22 Mexican-American teens were found guilty.
    The trial was overturned several years later, and all of the accused

    were released.

    Riots
    Rioting occurred in May

    and June 1943 in Los


    Angeles with the June riots
    lasted several days.
    Thousands of servicemen

    participated in the attacks


    They targeted Mexican-

    American youth with beatings


    and racial slurs and stripped
    them of their zoot suits.
    Some Filipino and AfricanAmerican youth were also
    among those attacked.

    Arrests
    The police arrested

    more than 500


    Mexican Americans.
    No servicemen were
    arrested.
    The incident set off a
    wave of attacks
    against Latinos/as in
    seven other U.S. cities.

    WHAT CAUSED THE ZOOT


    SUIT RIOTS?
    FIND A PARTNER
    Together you will read two documents from the era and fill out
    the worksheet. Afterwards we will discuss them as a class and
    you will turn them in for credit.

    Class Discuss
    According to Document A, who caused the riots?
    According to Document B, who caused the riots?

    Is one more reliable than the other?


    Does Document A support the claim that the press was, in
    fact, decidedly inflammatory? How?

    Discussion Continued
    Why did the Coordinator of Latin American Youth decide
    to send a telegram to the Office of War Information? What
    does this tell you about the seriousness of the riots? How
    could this have affected U.S.-Mexico relations?
    How did the context of WWII influence the riots?
    What more would you want to know about this time period
    to understand what happened better?

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