Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising And The 1960s (ISBN 0306807920)

A story omitted:
Gerald Horne's book, Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s is an extensive scholarly study into one of the United States' most violent riots and an event that characterized the civil unrest of the turbulent 1960s. Originally published by University Press of Virginia in 1995 and reprinted by Da Capo Press as a paperback in 1997, Fire This Time thoroughly examines the causes, conflict, impact, and meaning of the 1965 Watts Uprising. Horne, a noted black social historian, contends in his thesis that the Red Scare retarded Los Angeles' left based liberalism, once a progressive minded center of the working class in the United States. This move away from the left created a "vacuum that would be later filled by black nationalism" and eventually fueled the flames of the riot. Furthermore, this black nationalism manifested itself in the Nation of Islam, cultural nationalists, and the Black Panther party, all of which played a role throughout the uprising.(5) Although Horne devoted some of his introduction to a brief survey of Los Angeles social history, he never made a convincing argument that the absence of a left based movement brought on by the Red Scare lead to black nationalism. This accusation coupled with the work's emphasis on class struggle gave the book a Marxist slant typical of many of the author's previous works. Instead, a more convincing argument might have been that racist attitudes and behaviors on the part of a white majority in the Los Angeles area resulted in South Central's devastated economic condition thereby leading to black nationalism. In the economic squalor of Watts, African Americans had no other recourse than to turn to themselves when society abandoned them. In essence, racism served as a catalyst for the emergence of the black nationalism that the author writes. Horne chronicled the denigration of African Americans in Los Angeles by demonstrating the numerous ways in which government failed to treat them as equal. In chapter seven the author portrayed the Los Angeles Police Department as the "principal malefactor, the single offender in angering blacks to the point of insurrection. . . . (It operated) at the behest of the political and economic elites who administered the city." (134) Later, in chapter ten, the voting populous of the State of California betrayed blacks by passing the racially biased Proposition 14. This legislation repealed the Rumford Fair Housing Act in an effort to keep blacks out of white neighborhoods.(224) The remainder of this chapter describes the appalling housing, education, and religious opportunities afforded to blacks in Los Angeles thereby steering them toward black nationalism. Horne superbly illustrated the importance of black nationalism's role in the 1965 uprising. He explained that due to years of repression and disenfranchisement African Americans had come to be stereotyped as the subordinated, dominated, or "female" race even behind Mexican and Asian Americans.(12) Black nationalism offered African Americans an identity the void of such stereotypes. In addition, black nationalism made no apology for being black and anti-white sentiments in Watts intensified. Organizations that celebrated black nationalism such as the Nation of Islam, gangs, and the Black Panther party grew in popularity along with a new cultural identity. Black organizations established in white society like the NAACP, with their lighter-skinned, middle-class leadership lost appeal.(13) The nonviolent message of Dr. Martin Luther King seemed diminished compared to the rising popularity of Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam.(102) Clearly, by 1965 black nationalism championed the view that African Americans were no longer the submissive race dominated by white society. Blacks tired of the long, slow civil right movement demanded taking back economically depressed neighborhoods for themselves. The author's thorough academic research of the black nationalistic movement in Los Angeles brought a human characteristic to the story of Watts. The stories, in many cases tragedies, spoke of people affected by the riot and demonstrated an uprising directed against the LAPD and the "well-to-do."(340) A careful analysis of the events that followed the Watts Uprising showed a significant "white backlash" to the violence that propelled Ronald Reagan into the governor's mansion and eventually the White House.(281) Finally, Horne revealed that little changed since the 1965 revolt and the Rodney King Beating Trial of 1992 sparked similar civil unrest.(358) The author extensively drew on the papers from Governor's Commission on the Los Angeles Riots and transcripts from the McCone panel both governmental studies into the uprising. Horne used records from various city and county agencies along with studies and oral histories from Southern California universities. The most valuable primary sources came from The Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research which is located in what was once the curfew zone and is a depository of numerous historical facts on the Watts community. At this library, Horne collected oral histories from residents in conjunction with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the riot invaluable to his study.(423) Before the extensive notes the book is 364 pages and includes a map of Los Angeles and photographs from the period.

F.I.:
As usual any book by Gerald Horne, Phd is very concise and intelligent. I have purchased this book and others of social conscience for my children, to see what the real america is all about. This book also shows that nothing has really changed on a subterranian level. The lesson that should have been learnd by the Wastts upheavel, has not made a dent. Unequal economics and the deliberated lack of funding for education and other social programmes are still, IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY allowed and accepted by the powers that be.

angry and deeply unintelligent:
Poor Gerald Horne does his best to write a history of the Watts "Uprising" -- one of the few such "revolts" that targeted liquor stores as prime military targets. But his thinking is scattershot and he does not use the English language well. Still, some will be satisfied with the facts he has marshalled.

An Exceptionally Brilliant Work of Intellect and and Heart:
Unequivocally there is no other treatment of urban racial unrest that can compare!

Almost like being there....sort of:
_Fire This Time_ (a play on James Baldwin's title _The Fire Next Time_) documents the history and events before, during and after the 1965 Watts Riot in South Central Los Angeles. For the most part, the writing is well done, especially when the author describes the events during the six days of the riot. I had a couple of quibbles. The author does seem to describe many, if not most, of the people and institutions (government departments, media outlets, etc.) and either "progressive" or "right wing". Not that he is necessarily being inaccurate or wrong, but it just comes across as rather heavy-handed. There are some instances of inaccurate research, though. On p. 28, the removal of the "Red Car" network, causing social isolation in Watts, is said to have happened in 1940. But Watts (and most of the southern part of LA County) actually enjoyed "Red Car" service until 1961. On p. 352, there is a reference to an LA Times article (on bus service) that leads nowhere (I actually checked the back issue of the newspaper, and could not find the article referenced). Some other issues, mentioned in the book, could have used a little more depth (like the Deadwyler shooting, p. 348) So enjoy his ability to describe an historical event, take his politics with a grain of salt, and double check the references!