103rd Street, Watts Riot, 1966. Public Domain, from Blackpast.org
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In 1965 a police officer pulled over two young black men driving home in the Watts neighborhood of south central Los Angeles. A crowd of onlookers gathered and after unnecessary violence by the officer the crowd became distressed and what followed was six days of rioting. After the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act it seemed discrimination of African Americans was over. Still many states passed legislation to subvert the legislation. California repealed the Rumford Fair Housing Act in 1964 with proposition 14, this furthered the unemployment, overcrowding and economic disparity of the Watts neighborhood. With the refusal of the state government to allocate funds to black neighborhoods, rising tensions boiled over and rioting in Watts began on August 11, 1965. After 6 days the rioting subsided, it left 34 dead over a thousand injured and caused roughly $40 million in damages. Little changed as the Watts neighborhood still deals with high unemployment, poor housing, and inadequate schools.
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