Documenting United States History

398 ChApTEr 17 | ChaLLenGes to the statUs QUo | period seven 1890 –1945

p rACTICINg historical Thinking

Identify: What are these demonstrators’ concerns, as evidenced by the signs they

are holding?

Analyze: In what ways is this protest a product of the legacy of Reconstruction

after the Civil War?

Evaluate: Compare this image with the photograph of a Chicago streetcar in

Document 17.1. How are they similar and different to other portrayals of public life

in Northern cities (for example in Doc. 17.1)?

Library of Congress

prints and

photographs Division,

Fsa

• o

Wi Collection,

LC-

Us

Z62-130701.

Document 17.12 lawRENCE E. daViES, “Zoot Suits Become

issue on Coast,” New York Times

1943

During the Second World War, young men who dressed in “zoot suits” (bright-colored

suits with long jackets, wide lapels, and loose, pegged-legged pants) rioted and shocked

the sensibilities of middle-class Americans, who had assumed a unified front in the face

of total war, as reported in this New York Times article.

LOS ANGELES, June 12—The zoot suit with the reat pleat [or reet pleat], the drape

shape and the stuff cuff has been the object of much amusement and considerable

derision from Harlem to the Pacific during the last two or three years. Psychiatrists

may have their own ideas about it, but, according to the reasoning of many new-

comers to the armed services, especially hundreds of young sailors in this area, the

zoot suit has become the symbol these last ten days of a fester on the body politic

which should be removed by Navy vigilantes, if police will not or cannot do the job.

Adventurers of the Navy boys in trying to accomplish their purpose have

been watched with such interest in all quarters—bringing cheers from some and

TopIC II | Challenges to Civil Liberties 399

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