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A West Virginia Town Applied For Soviet Foreign Aid, and Other Lesser Known American History Facts

Khalid Elhassan February 21, 2020 33 min

Vulcan - McDowell County — Vulcan miners in 1919. The Sangha Kommune

14. Zoots and Mexican-American Teens

Mexican-American teenagers in Zoots. Yes Magazine

The most dramatic backlash against Zoots occurred in Los Angeles in June of 1943, in what came to be known as the Zoot Suit Riots. In the preceding year, local newspapers had whipped up racial tensions by harping on a non-existent “crime wave“, allegedly caused by Mexican-American youths. Soon, a media campaign was in full swing, calling for action against “Zoot suiters”.

LA’s cops responded with frequent roundups and arrests of hundreds of young Mexican-Americans, guilty of nothing more than wearing oversized outfits. Tensions were further exacerbated by the conviction for murder of nine young Mexican Americans of murder, following a controversial trial amidst a wave of anti-Mexican-American hysteria. The trial had been a travesty, and the convictions were overturned on appeal. However, in the trial’s aftermath, anti-Mexican-American racism reached a peak.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.