HIST-UA 9 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: War Relocation Authority
Document Summary
Zoot suits caused a lot of controversy due to expansion of mexican-american neighborhoods and the new conflicts in those neighborhoods. Zoot suits had a unique style to them because the people wore long loose jackets, baggy pants, chains, and had a distinct hairstyle. It was common with many of the gangs since many of the newer generation wanted to step out of the middle class society look. Zoot suits seemed to be scary, threatening and it later became a problem. Eventually, there was legislation that banned people from wearing zoot suits. In los angeles, white sailors attacked people in zoot suits and other mexican-american communities. It was chaos because the hispanic fought back and so the hispanics got arrested. To ease the conflict zoot suits were banned. In general, the zoot suits showed a distinct mexican-american look, but it did evoke controversy with the riots and violence: war relocation authority.
