1943: A series of violent clashes between white servicemen stationed in Los Angeles and local Latino youths turned the city upside down for weeks. The events came to be known as the Zoot Suit Riots, named after the flashy style of dress favored by many of the young men involved.
In a desperate attempt to curb the unrest, the Los Angeles City Council banned the wearing of zoot suits—high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. The Los Angeles Times covered the story:
The new ordinance instructs city judges to send to jail for sixty days any one caught in ankle-choker trousers and knee-length coats. The latest instance of violence came today when zoot suiters deliberately ran down with an automobile and critically injured a city patrolman.
Every available policeman and auxiliary policeman was on duty last night but sailors and soldiers, beaten and victimized by many of the oddly dressed gangsters, formed their own squads to clean out the areas. The zoot suiters, ordinarily engaged in their own gang rivalries, banded together to battle the servicemen.
Arrests of long-haired hoodlums with ankle-choker pants were running more than 100 a day, and several voluntarily appeared at Central Jail, asking to be locked up for protection.
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