Southland

The Watts Rebellion, also known as the Watts Uprising and the Watts riots, began in response to police violence against Black stepbrothers Marquette and Ronald Frye, who were pulled over by a white California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer while driving in the predominantly Black Watts neighborhood of South Los Angeles. Marquette failed a sobriety test and, frightened and angry at the thought of going to jail, began to struggle against the arresting officer. Ronald tried to intervene to protect his brother, and the officer assaulted both brothers with his riot baton before handcuffing Marquette and placing him in the police cruiser. Soon a crowd arrived to protest the arrest, including the brothers’ mother, Rena, who was also arrested and placed in the cruiser along with both Marquette and Ronald. More CHP officers arrived, and the scene became a brawl between protestors and police. The violence that began in that moment spilled out into the surrounding neighborhood and far beyond, in a demonstration of collective outrage that lasted three days, destroyed homes and businesses throughout more than 50 square miles of Los Angeles, and claimed the lives of 34 people, most of them Black demonstrators killed by police.