Watts is a residential district in southern Los Angeles, California. It is considered part of South Central Los Angeles.
Watts is bordered by the cities of South Gate on the east and Lynwood on the southeast, and the unincorporated areas of Willowbrook on the south and Florence on the north.
The district's boundaries are 103rd Street on the north, Mona Boulevard on the east, Imperial Highway (CA-90) on the south, and Central Avenue on the west. Principal thoroughfares through the district include Santa Ana Boulevard; Compton and Wilmington Avenues; and 108th Street. In addition to buses, mass transit is provided by the Blue and Green light rail lines of the Los Angeles Metro system, at the 103rd Street/Kenneth Hahn station on the Blue Line and the Imperial/Wilmington/Rosa Parks station where the Blue and Green lines meet.
Watts is split between ZIP Codes 90002 and 90059.
Watts covers U.S. Census tracts 2420, 2426, 2427, 2430, and 2431. As of the 2000 census, total population in the district was 22,847. Racial breakdown was as follows: 14.9% white or Caucasian, 36.9% black or African American, 0.8% American Indian or Alaska native, 0.2% Asian or Pacific Islander, 43.3% some other race, and 3.9% two or more races; 61.7% were Hispanic or Latino of any race. (Owing to the large numbers of illegal immigrants in the area, it is probable that the percentage of Latinos in the area is considerably higher.) Per capita income stood at $6681; 49.7% of families and 49.1% of individuals were below the federal poverty line.
Watts was originally an independent suburb of lower-class workers, named after Pasadena real estate broker C. H. Watts. It was annexed by Los Angeles in 1926. Along with the areas of South Central further to the north, Watts was generally the only area of the city in which working-class African-Americans could settle prior to 1948, and was predominantly black by 1940. (Florence, the area between the two districts, was absolutely off-limits for black settlement; blacks passing through it on foot or by automobile were subject to verbal and physical attack well into the 1950s.) During World War II, several large housing projects (including Nickerson Gardens, Jordan Downs, and Imperial Courts) were built in the neighborhood to house workers in war industries. Originally integrated, by the early 1960s they were nearly 100% black as newly developed suburbs—most of which excluded blacks by various means—drew away the district's white population.
Longstanding resentment by Los Angeles' working-class black community over unfair treatment by police and inadequate public services (especially schools and hospitals) exploded on August 11, 1965 into what were commonly known as the Watts Riots. The event that precipitated the riots, the arrest of a black youth by the California Highway Patrol on drunk-driving charges, actually occurred outside of Watts' boundaries, but the district was by far the area most affected by the nearly week-long disturbance. Watts suffered even further in the 1970s, with gangs—poorly organized prior to the riots—becoming increasingly prominent features of the social landscape. The crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s hit Watts especially hard: between 1989 and 2005, LAPD reported over 200 homicides in Watts alone, most of them gang-related, a staggering number considering the district's relatively small land area and population. In the 1990s, however, the gangs themselves made efforts to curb crime in the area, through a local gang treaty. Three of Watts' most notorious gangs—Grape Street Watts Crips, Bounty Hunter Watts Bloods, and PJ Watts Crips—formed a cease fire agreement after the 1992 Watts Riots, which lead to a decrease in crime in the area from 1992-2000. City and law enforcement officials did not recognize the treaty for a long time and even made attempts to thwart it. Recently, the treaty has been nullified, which has contributed to increased violence.
Beginning in the 1970s, many African Americans left Watts for other parts of South Central, and later the Antelope Valley, the Inland Empire, and even the San Joaquin Valley; they were largely replaced by immigrants of Mexican and Central American ancestry. This process accelerated after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, which saw numerous instances of "black-on-brown" violence. Tension between the black and Latino communities remains high: while the majority of Watts residents has been Latino since the 1980s, the vast majority of political power in the area continues to be held by blacks due to the low percentage of U.S. citizenship among the district's Latinos. Resentment over illegal immigration is particularly high in Watts' black community, as it has caused a significant strain on the area's already shaky public services and is believed to have suppressed wages.
Neighborhood leaders have begun a strategy to overcome Watts' reputation as a violence-prone and impoverished area. Special promotion has been given to the museums and art galleries opened in the area surrounding Watts Towers. This hybrid sculptural/architectural landmark has come to recent fame, attracting a tide of artists and related professionals to the area. The arrival of these new immigrants may signal the beginnings of gentrification. However, Watts remains one of the poorest and most crime-ridden areas of Los Angeles, and the recent breakdown of the Crips-Bloods truce is a troubling new development that threatens any potential economic development in the district.
In July 2005, Watts returned to the news when an LAPD SWAT team accidentally killed 18-month-old Suzy Peña during a shootout with her father at a used car lot in the area. Reaction in the community was divided between condemnation of Peña's father and calls for disciplinary action against the SWAT team, but surprisingly the division was not along racial lines: black and Latino activists could be found in both camps.