The Watts riots erupted in Los Angeles
On this day · 11 August 1965
A routine traffic stop in a Black Los Angeles neighborhood ignited six days of unrest that left 34 people dead.
On August 11, 1965, a California Highway Patrol officer pulled over Marquette Frye, a 21-year-old Black motorist, near the corner of Avalon Boulevard and 116th Street in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. What began as a drunk-driving stop escalated as Frye’s family and a growing crowd of onlookers gathered, and a roadside scuffle hardened long-simmering grievances over policing into open confrontation.
Rumors of police brutality spread quickly, and the unrest swelled over the following days. Roughly 14,000 California National Guard troops were deployed to help suppress the disturbance, which spread across a wide swath of South Los Angeles.
The unrest ended on August 17, with 34 people dead, over 1,000 injured, thousands arrested, and nearly $40 million in property damage.
The scale of the violence prompted Governor Pat Brown to convene the McCone Commission, whose investigation pointed to entrenched poverty, joblessness, and discrimination. The events became a defining moment of the 1960s urban uprisings and reshaped national debate about race and policing.
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