History/Black Civil Rights in the USA/Turning points and growing frustration

Selma (1965)



 * Voter registration
 * Police confront marchers

The Watts riots (1965)

 * In the slum suburb of Watts, 1965; tension in the Negro community were at an all-time high. With the failure of the Selma March in early 1965, young blacks were beginning to get impatient about the sluggish progress of the black civil rights movement. The fuse was lit when Marquette Frye, an intoxicated young black, was pulled over by police and arrested for D.U.I. A violent mob broke out and began to hurl objects at police. As a result, Marquette's brother, Ronald Frye, and his mother were also arrested. The rioting lasted 6 days and resulted in 34 fatalities, over 1000 injuries, almost 4000 arrests, an estimated property damage of $40 million and almost 1000 buildings were burned down, damaged or destroyed.