American Experience
Season 14 Episode 8 - Zoot Suit Riots
6.9 ?
1988
Documentary
"Zoot Suit Riots" recalls a week of violence that rocked Los Angeles in June 1943, pitting Mexican-Americans against Anglos, many of them servicemen. Hector Elizondo narrates the hour, which uses atmospheric re-creations and interviews with historians and people who lived through it to chart a year of steadily rising tension leading up to the riots. One key event: an August 1942 altercation in which a young Mexican-American man died. The defendants were also Mexican-American, but the circus trial at which they were convicted inflamed prejudices and on June 3, 1943, says Elizondo, "the city exploded."
Episodes in Season 14
1
New York (6): The City of Tomorrow
55 min
2
New York (7): The City and the World
55 min
3
War Letters
55 min
4
Woodrow Wilson (1): A Passionate Man
55 min
5
Woodrow Wilson (2): The Redemption of the World
55 min
6
Mount Rushmore
55 min
7
Miss America
55 min
8
Zoot Suit Riots
55 min
NOW PLAYING
9
Monkey Trial
55 min
10
Public Enemy #1
55 min
11
Ansel Adams
55 min
12
A Brilliant Madness
55 min
13
Ulysses S. Grant (1): The Warrior
55 min
14
Ulysses S. Grant (2): The President
55 min
