Fiery Photos Recalling The Watts Uprising 56 Years Ago

Fifty-six years ago on this day, Aug. 11, 1965, what is oftentimes referred to as the Watts Riots but more accurately described as the Watts Uprising or Watts Rebellion began in the eponymous Black neighborhood in Los Angeles, lasting for six harrowing days.

Prompted by circumstances that remain all too familiar in 2021, the community was reacting to a preventable instance of police brutality viciously used against an unarmed young, Black motorist as a growing crowd of onlookers witnessed the violence.

MORE: The Watts Riots: The Fire Still Burns

Marquette Frye and his brother were pulled over under the suspicion of drunk driving. After failing a field sobriety test, Frye’s brother, Ronald, went to get their mother, who arrived as Marquette was being placed under arrest. Frye’s mother physically confronted officers on the scene and ended up tearing one of their shirts.

That’s when California Highway Patrol Officer Lee Minikus, who pulled Frye over, accused him of resisting arrest and used his baton and hit the 21-year-old man in the head.

Twenty-five years later, Minkus would tell the Los Angeles Times that he meant to hit Frye on the arm when the suspect ducked and got hit in the eye instead. But either way, the literal and figurative damage was done, as that was the moment that ultimately sparked off nearly one full week of a community fed up with racial profiling and police brutality reacting by looting local establishments and setting them on fire along with cars.

The nonstop uprising prompted California officials to call in the National Guard, with nearly 14,000 troops responding to patrol the city.

In the end, 34 people had died, more than 1,000 people were injured and police arrested nearly 4,000 people. In addition, an estimated $40 million worth of damage had been left behind.

MORE: Here’s What The Watts Riots Would Have Looked Like If We Had Twitter In 1965

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was among the civil rights leaders to come to Watts in an effort to address the root cause of such an uprising, the King Institute reminds on its website.

The economic deprivation, social isolation, inadequate housing, and general despair of thousands of Negroes teeming in Northern and Western ghettos are the ready seeds which give birth to tragic expressions of violence,” King said the day after the Watts rebellion ended, Aug. 17, 1965.

Unfortunately, the sage perspective from King was not enough to prevent a very similar occurrence nearly 27 years later when officers with the Los Angeles Police Department pulled over motorist Rodney King and savagely beat him in an instance of egregious police brutality that sparked more than six days of rioting in South Central Los Angeles — a moment in history that went on to be known as the Los Angeles Riots.

Keep reading to find some vintage, powerful photos that documented the Watts Uprising in vivid black and white photos. They are accompanied by their original captions.

Fiery Photos Recalling The Watts Uprising 56 Years Ago  was originally published on newsone.com