Robert Gottlieb and Irene Wolt Thinking Big: The Story of the Los Angeles Times, Its Publishers and Their Influence on Southern California, G.P. Putnam's Sons: NY, 1977. 603 pp., 1943
Chapter 18 Cold War Journalism
2. Zoot Suit
"Only a few weeks after the Japanese evacuation orders, the Times and the Hearst press initiated another racial campaign. All through the spring and summer of 1942, the papers, referring to "greasers," "pachuchos," and "zoot suiters," raised the cry of spreading Mexican-American juvenile delinquency. . . ." p. 298
"Zoot suits were a stylized costume originally designed for fast "jitterbug" dancing, with tight trouser cuffs, widened coat shoulders, and heavy shoes. The men wore duck-tailed haircuts, and the women short black skirts, long black stockings, and a sweater. Though Anglo and black youths also wore zoot suits, their widespread use among Mexican-American youths created an identity for the young Mexicans."
"A number of servicemen stationed at Los Angeles's large naval and marine bases, were bored and easily influenced . . . On the night of June 3, 1943, several sailors, claiming they had been set upon by Mexican youths over the Anglos' flirtations with some Mexican-American women, went through the barrios with rocks, sticks, and clubs, beating up any zoot suiter they could find. . . . the police later sent out their own "vengeance squad," which swooped down the edge of downtown looking for suspicious zooters.
" . . . Over the next several nights, large groups of sailors, traveling in commandeered taxicabs, patrolled the barrios, beating up any Mexican-Americans they came across . . .
"By the third evening, soldiers and marines had joined the sailors and together marched through downtown Los Angeles and into the east side, four abreast, attacking anyone int their path. The police followed at a distance, arresting, not the servicemen, but the badly beaten Mexicans.
"A commission appointed by Governor Warren after the riots discounted any significant rise in Mexican-American juvenile delinquency and criticized the role of the press in creating the kind of environment which made, the riots possible." p. 300