"WE'D RATHER FIGHT FOR THE NEGRO HERE"
When President Johnson signed his "voting rights bill" on August 6, he said that the action struck away "the last major shackles of those fierce and ancient bonds" of.the Negroes.
Exactly five days later the Black Ghetto of Watts in the | heart of Los Angeles exploded, And from August 11 until August 17. television screens in the United States showed scenes reminiscent of Vietnam or Santo Domingo. Johnson's Emancipation Proclamation was forgotten, Ce
The bare facts in themselves indicate something of what went on. Thirty-three people were killed. Of these, 27 were Negroes and only six were white. The official figure for the injured was 862, the overwhelming majority being black. (Including 733 civilians, 85 police, 37 firemen and 7 National Guardsmen. )
Arrests reached 3,124, If there were any whites in this huge number the press did not mention it. .Property damage amounted to $175,000,000. Most of this was due to fires, as high as 1,000 being reported during one 24-hour period by the fire department. Besides 5,000 Los Angeles police, 15,000 National Guardsmen were ordered out in response to the demand of Police Chief William H, Parker,
What were the causes of the social explosion? The incident that touched it off was the arrest of Marquette Frye, 21, by two white California highway patrolmen on charges of "drunken driving," He reportedly had the temerity to argue with the cops. As they hauled him away, a small group of youths pelted their automobile with stones. The disturbance touched off a similar violent reaction among other crowds. ,
The next day Police Chief Parker told a press conference: The rioting began when "one person threw a rock and then, like monkeys in a zoo, others started throwing rocks." The outburst came as "no surprise to me. When you keep telling them they are being badly treated and abused, they're going. to react. The trouble is people have lost respect for the law -- no reverence for the law." Nevertheless, he said, the area was now back to normal.
The following day, however, he asked for the National Guard, His explanation was: "We have to protect the people in the area."
What this protection amounted to was eloquently shown by the dead. They were nearly all black. After the entire business was over, the police department itself admitted that one-third of the deaths were due to the police and one-third to the National Guardsmen. From the photographs of the heavily armed forces and innumerable accounts of their violence, it was clear that they played a big
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role in provoking the sporadic sniper fire they met as they moved into the area,
The policy announced by Governor Edmund G. Brown on August 15 was as follows: "It is clear from our latest reports that the lawlessness in Los Angeles is the work of organized gangs and I have directed Commissioner of Public Safety Bradford Crittenden to maintain an aggressive posture in pursuing these men and arresting them,
This provocative attitude was followed to the letter by the police and National Guardsmen. During the day they made indiscriminate mass arrests: "Anyone who gives us back talk today will make trouble tonight," a police sergeant said. “So we're arresting them without question,"
Figures like Martin Luther King played a miserable role, Instead of rallying to the defense of the residents of the ghetto, they expressed solidarity with the police. From Puerto Rico, the Rev. King said:
"It was necessary that as powerful a police force as possible be brought in to check them, but police power can bring only a temporary halt. Better housing and economic conditions and opportunities for Negroes will bring much needed help in their communities,"
On arriving in Los Angeles August 17, he declared: "I think the trouble is that there is no vibrant nonviolent program afoot in Los Angeles. Such a program would give oppressed people a chance to vent their fury without violence,"
The world press has been filled with explanations of the basic causes of the outburst in Watts. Several figures have often been cited: Out of the population of 100,000 in the area, 34% are unemployed and 60% receive relief checks. The density of the population is about double the rest of the city. One-quarter of the births are illegitimate -- a measure of the breakdown of family life. A constand reminder to the Negroes of the low station assigned them in the "Great Society" is the palatial style of living practiced by the whites in such areas as Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Homes there, each with its private swimming pool and landscaped gardens, are among the most luxurious. in the world.
Another cup of bitterness in the Black Ghetto has been the endless war propaganda -- about the American Way of Life and the need to fight for it in distant places like Vietnam and Santo Domingo. One may well believe the Negro reporter who quoted one man as saying: "We want to set a fire right here on Broadway rather than go to Vietnam and fight. We'd rather fight for the Negro here." And another man as saying: "This is the Negro revolution, we want the world to know," co
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