Per the Daily News, The Watts riot broke out Aug. 11, 1965 and raged for most of a week. When the smoke cleared, 34 people were dead, more than a 1,000 were injured and some 600 buildings were damaged.
It began with a routine traffic stop 50 years ago, catapulted into a protest with the help of a rumor and escalated into the deadliest and most destructive riot in Los Angeles.
If you were living and working in the San Fernando Valley and or Los Angeles at the time, how did this event affect you? Your family? What has changed or not changed over the last 50 years from this event?
What do you recall about Los Angeles and the Valley in 1965?
Send us a note with your thoughts, feelings and emotions of this event.
Read an article from the Daily News on the 50th anniversary of the Watts Riots - HERE.
Thank you.
1 comment:
I was a kid, but I remember I found it 'disturbing'. I was a white kid in the suburbs, and wasn't even sure where Watts was. I had no black classmates at the time--and wouldn't until high school. My best buddy's dad was a National Guardsman, and had been called up and sent to the area. I remember how shocked I was when my friend quoted his dad complaining about the "...damned 'ni--ers'. We didn't use language like that in my family (I was taught it was an ugly word), and was shocked that my friend's family apparently didn't share that value.
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