American Experience

Zoot Suit Riots

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/
In August 1942 the murder of a young Mexican American man ignited a firestorm in the City of the Angels. In no time at all, ethnic and racial tensions that had been building up over the years boiled over. Among those accused of murder was a young “Zoot-suiter” named Hank Leyvas — the poster boy for an entire generation of rebellious Mexican kids who refused to play by the old rules. As he and sixteen other boys headed to trial, the mood of the city turned violent.