With a Folding Map Marking Deaths and Building Damage
A scarce report produced at the behest of a special Governor's Commission, chaired by John M. McCone, charged by Gov. Edmund G. Brown to examine the background and causes of the violence and to make recommendations. While focusing on the African American community, the commission's report also makes several references to the need to address social and economic problems within the Mexican American community as well.
The folding street map of the so-called Curfew Zone includes printed red symbols indicating the locations of deaths as well as destroyed or looted buildings (public and private). Inexplicably, the entry for this work in Doyce Nunis's Los Angeles and its Environs in the Twentieth Century: A Bibliography of a Metropolis fails to mention the map!
Contents:
- Letter of transmittal from the commission to the governor
- The governor's charge to the commission
- The crisis: an overview
- 144 hours in August 1965
- Law enforcement: the thin thread
- Employment: key to independence
- Education: our fundamental resource
- The consumer and the commuter
- Welfare and health
- Neither slums nor urban gems
- A summing up: the need for leadership
- Appendix: The commission staff Consultants to the commission ; Clerical and secretarial staff ; List of sworn witnesses and other witnesses
- Folding Map of curfew area [in rear pocket]
Los Angeles Watts Rebellion
The Watts Riots, also known as the Watts Rebellion, occurred in Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965, triggered by the arrest of Marquette Frye, a Black motorist, on suspicion of drunk driving. The incident quickly escalated due to longstanding racial tensions and widespread allegations of police racism and brutality. Over six days of violence, looting, and arson, 34 people lost their lives, over 1,000 were injured, and approximately 1,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, causing an estimated $40 million in property damage. The Watts Riots highlighted deep-seated racial and economic disparities in the U.S. and foreshadowed later civil unrest in Los Angeles, including the 1992 L.A. riots following the acquittal of police officers in the beating of Rodney King.
Rarity
Though well represented in library holdings, this report and map are very scarce in the market.