June 3, 1943: The Zoot Suit Riots

June 3, 1943: Riots break out in Los Angeles, between servicemen stationed there and Mexican-American residents of the city.

Some of the Mexicans, calling themselves "Chicanos," had begun wearing fancy suits, or "zoots" in their accent. The term got doubled up, as "zoot suit." They had high baggy pants, jackets with long tails, wide-brimmed hats with feathers, and ties that were wide, often wild, to match the suits' colors. Some of them wore belts, others chose suspenders. Like some of the big cars of the time, the suits were a way of striking back against a culture of brown and gray tenements, and the black & white pop culture of the Great Depression and World War II years.

Thankfully, we have cosplayers showing us

what these suits looked like in color.

The servicemen, famously getting, in the words of Tony Pastor and His Orchestra, "Twenty-one dollars a day, once a month" (in other words, $21 a month, about $351 in 2022 money, although being in the service, they had free housing, food and clothing, such as they were), were jealous of these outfits, and angry that these were young men not fighting for their country. So they attacked the Chicanos, and the fighting became known as "The Zoot Suit Riots."

The Los Angeles Police Department took the side of the servicemen. Many of the cops were "immigrants" as well, from the Dust Bowl of the American South, coming West in the 1930s. They took their prejudices with them, and put the "Southern" in "Southern California." Some of them lasted long enough to be guilty of the kind of police brutality that led to the Watts Riot of 1965, and passed their beliefs down to the younger cops, leading to the Rodney King beating of 1991 and the South Central Riot of 1992.

There is no record of anyone dying as a result of these riots, but 150 people were admitted to hospitals, and over 500 were arrested.

The wearing of Zoot Suits spread to African-American and Asian-American teenage boys and young men. Black jazz bandleader Cab Calloway became known for wearing them.

Mexican-American women, known as Pachucas, had their own variations on the outfits: High hairdos, heavy makeup, large earrings, tight sweaters and flared skirts. White people looking to peg the Mexican-Americans as troublemakers spread the rumor that the Pachucas hid knives in their hair.

Like most fads, zoot suits didn't last long. By the time The War ended, they had been played out. But not forgotten: Writers Luis Valdez, Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright, and civil rights activists Cesar Chavez and Malcolm X remembered that wearing zoot suits help cement in their minds the identities they would like to have, distinct from the dominant white society and what it expected of black and Hispanic people. Malcolm X took to wearing dark suits with a bowtie, as did most Nation of Islam officials; but, inspired by his zoot suit days, he wore the best suits money could buy.

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June 3, 1943 was a Thursday. Billy Cunningham was born on this day. The Philadelphia 76ers have never won an NBA Championship without him: He was a reserve player on their 1967 title team, and he was the head coach of their 1983 title team.

These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the St. Louis Browns, 2-1 at Yankee Stadium. Ernest "Tiny" Bonham went the distance.

* The New York Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-6 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Mel Ott went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Chicago Cubs, 8-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-4 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 10-4 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 8-2 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Boston Braves, 7-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Stan Musial went 1-for-4 with 3 RBIs.

March 31, 1995: The Death of Selena

Sign that you're old: You hear "Selena," and you think "Quintanilla" before you think "Gomez"; "Demi," and you think "Moore" before you think "Lovato"; and "Kylie," and you think "Minogue" before you think "Jenner."

March 31, 1995: Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the biggest star of "Tejano" music, is killed in her hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas -- by the president of her fan club. She was not quite 24 years old, and had just released her first all-English album.

Like most Anglophone Americans, I never knew Selena was alive, until I knew she was dead. This would later be true of singer and plane crash victim Jenni Rivera -- although, having lived on the edge of a Mexican neighborhood in New Brunswick for a time, I had considerably less excuse for not knowing about her.

But People magazine reported that, for the first time in their 21-year history, an entire press run of an issue sold out: The one with the Selena murder cover story. The story singlehandedly convinced People and Newsweek to begin publishing Spanish editions, and led to the founding of Latina magazine.

Europeans from Germany), Poland, and Czechia migrated to Texas and Mexico, bringing with them their style of music and dance. They brought with them the accordion, and the polka form of dance. This influenced the Tejanos, people who settled in Texas while it was still under Spanish, then Mexican, and finally American control.

Central to the evolution of early Tejano music was the blend of polka music with traditional Mexican forms such as the corrido and mariachi. n particular, the accordion was adopted by Tejano folk musicians at the turn of the 20th century, and it became a popular instrument for amateur musicians in Texas and Northern Mexico.

Within her lifetime, Selena had already been credited with taking Tejano music outside its bubble of Texas and introducing it to America at large. Her band, Selena y Los Dinos (Selena and The Guys) was formed in 1981, when she was just 10 years old, by her father, Abraham Quintanilla. It would include her brother, Abraham III, a.k.a. A.B. Quintanilla, on guitar, and also their recording producer; her sister, Suzette, on drums; and her eventual husband, Chris Pérez, on guitar. (They had not yet had any children at the time of Selena's death.)

It wasn't a completely happy rise: Selena's skimpy outfits led to her being called "The Spanish Madonna," even though she was a much better singer than Madonna. But on February 26, 1995, she sold out the Astrodome in Houston, including singing songs from her upcoming English debut, Dreaming of You. It was released on July 18. (The concert was re-created for the 1997 film Selena, with Jennifer Lopez in the title role, singing at the Astrodome.)

Yolanda Saldívar, a former nurse who was the president of Selena's fan club, but had become mentally unhnged, was sentenced to life in prison, and is serving a life sentence at the Mountain View prison in Gatesville, Texas. Oddly, though she committed cold-blooded murder while George W. Bush was Governor -- and Bush was a fan of Selena's -- she was not given the death penalty. She will be eligible for parole for the first time in 2025. Don't count on her leaving prison in anything other than a coffin.

UPDATE: She was denied that first chance. She remains at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit, a State prison for women in Gatesville, in central Texas.

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March 31, 1995 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 10 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Dallas Mavericks, 101-90 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 86-85 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat, 100-99 at the Boston Garden.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Washington Bullets, 98-88 at the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Indiana Pacers, 107-92 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 118-102 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Despite the defeat, Glenn Robinson of the Bucks led all scorers on the night with 31 points.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Utah Jazz, 101-98 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 106-96 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 121-107 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Sacramento Kings, 120-95 at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington. The Sonics played the 1994-95 season there, while the Seattle Center Coliseum was demolished and rebuilt at the Key Arena.

And there were 6 games in the NHL:

* The Washington Capitals beat the Quebec Nordiques, 6-4 at the USAir Arena (formerly the Capital Centre) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Hartford Whalers, 2-0 at the ThunderDome (now Tropicana Field) in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* In an "Original Six" matchups, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Chicago Blackhawks played to a tie, 3-3 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-1 at the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

* In "The Battle of Alberta," the Calgary Flames beat the Edmonton Oilers, 6-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 6-1 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

March 23, 1903: The Oxnard Strike

March 23, 1903: The Oxnard Strike reaches a climax. It is a landmark not just for the labor movement, but for civil rights, especially in the State of California.

Brothers Henry, James, Benjamin and Robert Oxnard ran a sugar refinery in Brooklyn. In 1887, they sold it, and moved west to booming California. In 1897, they founded the American Beet Sugar Company. Many of their workers were Chinese, but Exclusion Acts reduced their availability, and so they had to hire Japanese and Mexican workers. Eventually, the brothers became members of the Western Agricultural Contracting Company (WACC).

On February 11, 1903, the Japanese-Mexican Labor Association (JMLA) was founded by 500 Japanese and 200 Mexican laborers. They accused the WACC of artificially suppressing wages. They opposed the subcontracting system, arguing that it forced workers to pay double commissions. And they called for the freedom to buy goods, rather than be subjected to the inflated prices of the company store.

Limiting employees to shopping only at stores that the company owned meant that, in some cases (not this one), they didn't get paid in money so much as in credit; and that, if they didn't produce enough, they were actually in debt to the store.

In 1947, country singer Merle Travis wrote "Sixteen Tons," imagining a coal miner who had to shovel eighteen tons a day to "break even" at the company store. With Tennessee Ernie Ford singing it in a basso profundo voice that made it a Number 1 hit in 1955, the chorus went:

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt.

St. Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go:
I owe my soul to the company store.

The WACC was never going to meet the demands of this union of nonwhite people, and so, in early March, the strike was on.

On March 23, the strike reached its turning point. During a confrontation between the JMLA and IALU strikebreakers in Oxnard's Chinatown, shots were fired, wounding 2 Japanese and 2 Mexican members of the JMLA. Luis Vasquez, a Mexican member of the JMLA, was killed by the gunfire.

Initial reports by local newspapers, of course, owned by rich men, including WACC members, blamed the JMLA for the violence. A statement released by the JMLA in the following days asserted that union members were not armed at the confrontation, pointing out that no union members had been arrested. The sole arrest from the confrontation was that of Deputy Constable Charles Arnold, for the murder of Luis Vasquez. An all-white male jury found Charles Arnold innocent in the murder of Luis Vasquez, and he was cleared of all charges.

After the deadly skirmish in Chinatown, JMLA representatives met with representatives of local farmers and the WACC to engage in negotiations. During the 1st 2 days of negotiations, the JMLA stated clearly that they would refuse to end the strike until the WACC ended their monopoly over Oxnard Plain sugar beet operations, and allow workers to contract directly with local farmers. The strike reached an official end on March 30, after the WACC agreed to cancel all standing contracts with local sugar beet farmers, and grant farmworkers the right to contract directly with local growers.

The City of Oxnard was incorporated on June 30, 1903. Today, it is a mostly-Hispanic city of about 200,000 people.

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March 23, 1903 was a Monday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. Basketball barely existed. And hockey was still all-amateur. So there were no scores on this historic day.