Racial segregation was also a powerful force in L.A., Pagán said, adding that while researching his book he tracked down about 80 police reports from the 1940s in which people called the cops on so-called zoot suiters. The young people hadn’t actually broken any laws, Pagán said, but instead had done things such as refusing to cede a sidewalk to a white person. During that era, the professor said, many young people in Los Angeles were inspired by the art of jazz — by the spirit of defiance against segregation — and they adopted the signature clothing style. Soon, he said, people fixated on the zoot suit as a sign of criminality, and any young person — not only Mexican Americans — caught wearing ‘the drape,” as the outfit was often called, was forced to strip and attacked if they refused.

Source: Los Angeles Times June 04, 2018 12:00 UTC