LA City Council to apologize for past racism, commemorating "Zoot Suit Heritage Week"
Back in May, the Los Angeles City Council denounced the 1943 'Zoot Suit Riots,' and Friday, the council is to officially apologize for the treatment of Mexican Americans during the racial turmoil 80 years ago.
Community leaders, "pachucos" (zoot suiters), and Chicanas are expected to join Councilman Kevin de Leon in the Council Chamber today as he introduces the resolution.
The councilmember is also proposing to commemorate June 3-9 as "Zoot Suit Heritage Week" in the city of Los Angeles.
Wearing a zoot suit, back in the 1940s became popular among working-class minority men, especially Mexicans, making the clothing synonymous with certain racial groups.
Racial tensions were building in the nation at this time partly because of the influx of Mexican workers who came to fill needed and vacated jobs in the agricultural and service sectors. The jobs were abandoned by those who went to serve in the military during World War II.
The tipping point that fueled the weeklong Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riot was the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon murder. The so-named Sleepy Lagoon was one of the larger reservoirs outside the city of Los Angeles. There was a fight involving a group of zoot suiters at a party near the lagoon and one of the partygoers, Jose Diaz was found dead the morning after. There was a public outcry against the zoot-suiters once word got out about the death.
The build-up of fear and anger grew over the following year, leading to June 1943 when for over a week, white U.S. soldiers and sailors across Los Angeles sought out and beat up "unpatriotic" Mexican-American men, wearing the suits.
The violence resulted in more than 50 injuries and more than 500 Mexican Americans arrested. Sailors stripped the victims of their zoot suits and burned their clothes.
"These events exposed the deep-rooted racism and prejudice that permeated society at that time," de Leon said. "The victimization of Mexican American youth and the assault on their community revealed the systemic injustice they faced."
Later that year, U.S. servicemen were banned from the area and the council at the time backed a resolution, which never actually became law, that barred zoot suits in the city.
The Zoot Suit Riots became a dark chapter in the history of the Chicano community and were commemorated by a Broadway play in the 1970s that became a 1981 film, "Zoot Suit," starring Edward James Olmos.
