(9 of 9)
hurled gasoline bombs into two white-owned stores, wreaking
damage estimated at $30,000. At week's end, amid mounting tension, 250
singing, clapping demonstrators held a CORE-sponsored rally in the
Negro section's Winchester Square. Afterward, 25 were arrested when
they adjourned to another square for a sit-in. Vowed Mayor Charles
Ryan: "There is still a government in this city. It's the government
that's going to decide when rules and regulations, reasonable at all
times, are going to be imposed."
Lack of Communication. Public officials across the U.S. could doubtless
sympathize with Mayor Ryan's words. Most responsible Negro leaders also
fear that such insensate outbursts of anarchy can only discredit the
Negro's legitimate struggle for civil rights.
What caused the disorders? There were as many explanations as" there
were points of view. In Los Angeles, "the long, hot summer" was blamed
—as it was in Harlem last year—and not without reason: the rioting
broke out on the fourth day of an unusual heat wave in which Angelenos
sweltered in humid 90°-to-100° temperatures night and day. A deeper
source of irritation for urban Negroes is their isolation and poverty
in a land of conspicuous plenty. Undeniably, also, there is a "lack of
communication" between whites and blacks, between responsible Negroes
and the predominantly white police force.
Watts only too plainly lacks Negro leadership—except for the hotheads
who could whip up last week's passions. Yet the Los Angeles Negro is
incomparably better off than his cousin back home in the South. The
biggest single cause for his rage and frustration lies probably in the
very fact of his migration to an alien and fiercely competitive urban
world in which the Negro's past miseries and future expectations have
been callously exploited.
Police Chief Parker squarely blames civil rights leaders for honing the
Negro's sense of oppression. Says he: "Terrible conflicts are building
up within these people. You can't keep telling them that the Liberty
Bell isn't ringing for them and not expect them to believe it. You
cannot tell people to disobey the law and not expect them to have a
disrespect for the law. You cannot keep telling them that they are
being abused and mistreated without expecting them to react." Riots
such as those in Los Angeles have no real object—and therein lies the
pity and the danger.
