Post Watts Riots

McCone Commission and Failed Implementations

McCone Commission
A 3 month extensive study on the Watts Riots
A 101-page white paper filled with ambitious
remedies for many of Watts ills.
The commission recommended many needed
Implementations needed to fix the community
and prevent future problems
A report of the Watts Riots was published
530 witnesses interviewed
Including Mayor Sam Yorty and Los Angeles Police
Chief William Parker

Watts Riots Report

Education
Pre-school Programs
Class Sizes down to 22 students
Emergency literacy programs
Provide free or reduced lunch
School Libraries
Counseling and special services for students
Adequate special provisions should be made to push
students to College
CSUDH

Employment
The Commission considered employments as the most
serious immediate problem
Job training and placement centers

Law Enforcements
Improve relationship between the Police Dept. and the
various minority communities
Increase the number of African American and Mexican
American officers

Health Problems
Martin Luther King Hospital Opened after the Watts
Riots
One major finding of the report was the lack of health
care access near the low income neighborhoods of
South Central Los Angeles
On August 10, 2007 the hospital closed

Other Recommendations
Housing and Urban Development

City Human Relations Commission

Public Parks (none built)
Many of the proposed sites for parks became Liquor stores
Proposal models used racism

Consumer Problems
Increase and improve inspection programs for markets

Transportation
Reduce bus fares
105 freeway funds

2 years after the Watts Riots

Programs Come and Go (LA Times)
There was hope of redevelopment plans that were
forgotten
A Lot of Motion (LA Times)
Conditions got worst than before 1960

Median income is down

Segregation widespread
School cutbacks
Welfare cases have climbed

25 years later
Members of the commission and its 70-person staff
express sadness and frustration (LA Times)
While some of the recommedations were adopted and
sustained, bringing with them a handful of substansive
changes in Watts, most were not.
Some were enacted and then, for variety of reasons, were
scaled back or allowed to die out altogether.
Others simply ignored
In 1992, another massive riot took place due to police
brutality