Chavez Ravine was where Elysian Park Hights was going to be built. The residents of Chavez Ravine got notes saying that they were being thrown out of their homes because of the public housing project.The residents were allowed to get kicked out because the Federal housing act of 1948 provide houses for veterans so they put the project in Chavez Ravine and ruled that all of these people had to relocate because of Eminent Domain.
Elysian Park Hights was an extensive plan to put public housing in the middle of Los Angeles. The plan was so extensive that Richard Neutra (Frank Gary of his time) was the architect for it.
During world war 2 when the Navy Seals were on leave they would go downtown in a prominently Hispanic (Chicano) neighborhood and get drunk. In turn the Navy Seals would get upset at the Hispanic people for wearing zoot suits they felt it was a lack of appreciation. One day a fight broke out and one navy seal got stabbed. As a result of the stabbing groups of navy seals would roam the streets with baseball bats beating up people wearing zoot suit.
The first lady of the United States at the time of the zoot suit riots was Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor wrote the then bias LA times saying that there are two sides to every story
Twelve kids were charged with the murder José Díaz. This was an outrage to the Hispanic people and was morally wrong because while all of these people could have been in the fight only one person can do the act of killing.
Hispanic people were not understood so they felt that to take a stand and to do that they wore Zoot Suits (a baggy suit). In addition to the suits Hispanic people also slicked back their hair