--- title: Watts Riots in Los Angeles 50 Years Ago: Why Did They Happen? description: The unrest spread from a single Aug. 11, 1965, encounter with police, but its causes were much deeper canonical: https://time.com/3974595/watts-riot-1965-history/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-11T13:30:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:02:17.361Z article:section: History og:title: Watts Riots in Los Angeles 50 Years Ago: Why Did They Happen? og:description: The unrest spread from a single Aug. 11, 1965, encounter with police og:url: https://time.com/3974595/watts-riot-1965-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b68f9d63ef17cdd/69885cc7e20a8759d5a8c791/1101650820_400.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 400 og:image:height: 225 og:image:alt: Aug. 20, 1965 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watts Riots in Los Angeles 50 Years Ago: Why Did They Happen? twitter:description: The unrest spread from a single Aug. 11, 1965, encounter with police twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7b68f9d63ef17cdd/69885cc7e20a8759d5a8c791/1101650820_400.jpg?branch=production&width=400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 50 Years After Watts: The Causes of a Riot > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Aug 11, 2015 1:30 PM UTC  The Aug. 20, 1965, cover of TIME The Aug. 20, 1965, cover of TIMECover Credit: AP / UPI  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Aug 11, 2015 1:30 PM UTC It was Aug. 11, 1965, that Los Angeles police officer Lee Minikus tried to arrest Marquette Frye for driving drunk in the city’s Watts neighborhood—an event that led to one of the most infamous race riots in American history. By the time the week was over, nearly three dozen people were dead. TIME’s coverage from those incendiary days offers insight into why Watts erupted–and [lessons](http://time.com/3983763/watts-riots-ferguson/) for the current charged moment in America. Fifty years ago, Watts was a potent combination of segregation, unemployment and racial tension. Though legally integrated, 99% of students at the high school that served Watts were black, and the school—like many of the services available to the neighborhood—was not serving them well. “Watts is the kind of community that cries out for urban renewal, poverty programs, job training. Almost anything would help. Two-thirds of its residents have less than a high school education; one-eighth of them are technically illiterate,” TIME noted in a cover story about the riots. “Only 13% of the homes have been built since 1939—the rest are decaying and dilapidated.” Jobs, meanwhile, were scarce. The federal government’s Office of Economic Opportunity, run by John F. Kennedy’s brother-in-law Sargent Shriver, called out Los Angeles mayor Sam Yorty for running the only major city in the United States without an anti-poverty program, and for being one of only two big city mayors to refuse a confidential offer of federal money meant for job programs. TIME credited a federal program that created 4,000 jobs for helping keep Harlem calm that summer, despite unrest the year before. Yorty, in turn, accused Shriver’s agency of withholding funds. Nor were tensions calmed by police, as TIME’s piece a week later —[headlined “Who’s to Blame?”](http://time.com/vault/issue/1965-08-27/page/18/)—made clear. L.A. police chief William Parker was a divisive figure who compared Watts rioters to “monkeys in a zoo.” Martin Luther King Jr. was quoted as saying that in Watts “\[there\] is a unanimous feeling that there has been police brutality” despite the fact that a 1962 Civil Rights Commission investigation was unable to pin down specific instances. Seeking to explain the underlying causes of the riots as they were happening, TIME [surveyed](http://time.com/vault/issue/1965-08-20/page/21/) leading civil rights figures of the day. The magazine found most shared a common sentiment—one that may be [familiar](http://time.com/3838515/baltimore-riots-language-unheard-quote/) to current readers. “I think the real cause is that Negro youth—jobless, hopeless—does not feel a part of American society,” said movement leader Bayard Rustin. “The major job we have is to find them work, decent housing, education, training, so they can feel a part of the structure. People who feel a part of the structure do not attack it.” **_Read more from 1965, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Trigger of Hate](http://time.com/vault/issue/1965-08-20/page/17/) ### The Fire Last Time: LIFE in Watts, 1966  Caption from LIFE. "Children in Watts grow up with the signs of fear, desperation and hatred all around. The words painted last August on this little grocery store, telling rioters that it is owned by a Negro and urging them to burn something else, were left on the walls for months afterwards -- just in case." Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, Los Angeles, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Young men hang out near Simon Rodia's Watts Towers, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, Los Angeles, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Young men hang out near Simon Rodia's Watts Towers, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, Los Angeles, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "William Solomon (right, in his home in Watts) commands a big Watts street gang, which he openly admits took an active part in the riot. A champion hurdler in high school, he has no job but does have a police record and is on probation for assault. With two followers shown with him, he helps now at Westminster \[Neighborhood Association\], uses his influence to keep order there and, by his interest, gives its program a certain prestige in the streets." Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, Los Angeles, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, Los Angeles, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Children at play, Watts, Los Angeles, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, Los Angeles, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, Los Angeles, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, Los Angeles, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, Los Angeles, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "A Westminster staff member, Booker Griffin (yellow shirt), moved in on an argument between Westminster students and police who found the youths carrying heavy boards and suspected a gang fight. He calmed both sides." Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Making Molotov cocktails, Watts, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Molotov cocktails in Watts, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Molotov cocktails in Watts, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Molotov cocktails in Watts, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "LaRoi Drew Ali refuses to join any group, but like the nationalists attacks Christianity as a device to keep Negroes down. 'Even if somebody did rise up on Easter,' he says, 'it would just be another white man to kick us.'" Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, Los Angeles, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, Los Angeles, 1966. Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Watts, Los Angeles, 1966. 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