Set the Night on Fire
Set the Night
on Fire
L.A. in the Sixties
Mike Davis
and
Jon Wiener
First published by Verso 2020
© Mike Davis and Jon Wiener 2020
All rights reserved
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
Chapter 1, “Setting the Agenda,” was originally published in
New Left Review 108, Nov–Dec 2017. Chapter 21, “Riot Nights on the Sunset Strip,” was originally published in Labour/Le Travail 59, Spring 2007, and then in In Praise of Barbarians, by Mike Davis (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2007).
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Verso
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Verso is the imprint of New Left Books
ISBN-13: 978-1-78478-022-7
ISBN-13: 978-1-78478-024-1 (UK EBK)
ISBN-13: 978-1-78478-023-4 (US EBK)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Typeset in Fournier by MJ&N Gavan, Truro, Cornwall
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
For Levi Kingston and Geri Silva whom I admire
more than words can express and for Alessandra
whose love saved me.
—MD
For Judy
my Angeleno.
—JW
The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire …
Try to set the night on fire.
—The Doors, “Light My Fire”
The song was number one in 1967. In many ways the Doors were the quintessential LA group of the sixties.
In 1968, Buick offered them $75,000 to use the song in a commercial. When lead singer Jim Morrison found out, he called the company and said he would personally smash a Buick on TV with a sledgehammer if they used the song. Jim Morrison died in 1971; since then, drummer John Densmore has made sure that the Doors’ songs are not sold for commercials.
Densmore told us in an interview for this book: “The seeds of civil rights and the peace movement and feminism were planted in the sixties. And they are big seeds. Maybe they take fifty or a hundred years to reach fruition. So stop complaining, and get out your watering can. That’s my rap.”
Contents
Introduction: A Movement History
2. Warden of the Ghetto: LAPD Chief William H. Parker
3. L.A. to Mississippi, Goddamn: The Freedom Rides (1961)
4. “God’s Angry Men”: The Black Muslims (1962)
5. “Not Tomorrow—but Now!”: L.A.’s United Civil Rights Movement (1963)
6. Jericho Stands: The Beginning of the Backlash (Summer and Fall 1963)
7. Equality Scorned: The Repeal of Fair Housing (1964)
8. From “Ban the Bomb” to “Stop the War”: Women Strike for Peace (1961–67)
9. From Bach to “Tanya”: KPFK Radio (1959–74)
10. A Quarter of a Million Readers: The LA Free Press (1964–70)
11. Before Stonewall: Gay L.A. (1964–70)
12. Sister Corita and the Cardinal: Catholic Power and Protest (1964–73)
III. The Explosion
13. The Midnight Hour: The Watts Uprising (August 1965)
14. Whitewash: The McCone Commission and Its Critics (1965–66)
15. Cultural Revolution: The Watts Renaissance (1965–67)
16. Black Power: Stokely Carmichael and the Black Congress (1966)
17. The Cat Arrives: The Panthers and US (1967–68)
IV. Vietnam Comes Home
18. “Unlawful Assembly”: The Century City Police Riot (1967)
