By 1965, Watts was boiling over with decades of employment and housing discrimination, segregation, extreme poverty, and police abuse. On a scorching August night, when a white policeman arrested a young black man on suspicion of drunk driving—and then arrested his mother and brother, who showed up to the scene—a crowd of onlookers protested the officer’s harsh treatment. More officers arrived with billy clubs, and that night the pressure cooker of Watts exploded.
