Abstract:
The writer's initial encounter with the Negro Revolution came on the evening of August 13, 1965, in Watts, California. As a National Guardsman perched behind a machine gun on an army jeep he observed the revolution in its full fury. This first-hand experience proved invaluable in gaining an insight into the evolution of Negro protest.It is one thing to read about the Chicago riots of 1919 and the Detroit riots of 1943, but to witness a riot and participate on the side of the law is an unforgettable experience. Those five days on roadblocks, sniper patrols, and crowd control duty remain in the mind quite vividly. There are a lot of faces that are hard to forget. A riot is like being in battle-the rioters become your enemy even if you are sympathetic to the cause. In the eyes of the rioter, you are a white man representing law and order. You are fair game. You are a potential target. Looking down the sights of your M-1 or your machine gun, the hostile faces are your enemy. A shot may ring out and strike your buddy or strike you first. Agitators whipped the crowd into a frenzy and the pulse of emotionalism ran high in the South Central area or Los Angeles.In the writer's unit there were approximately 300 white soldiers and a handful of black soldiers. The site of the riots was about three miles from their Inglewood armory. Most of the white soldiers had no idea of the sub-standard living conditions in Watts. Not many Guardsmen were aware of the black white crisis that was finally surfacing on the West Coast. To most of the white soldiers, the racial crisis was a Southern phenomenon. IF the young white Guardsmen in Los Angeles were not aware of the impending racial turbulence, it must have really been a shock to the rest of the nation.