ABSTRACT
The zoot-suit which includes an oversized jacket and baggy pants arose among urban youth as the preferred mode of dress when frequenting jitterbug dance venues with featured big band swing music. According to Dr. Fritz Redl, then affiliated with Wayne University's School of Public Affairs and Social Work, the zoot-suit had evolved from an informal uniform of the youth subculture to 'a symbolic expression of potential unity of attack'. Cities experiencing the greatest degree of disturbances at the time were Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC, and Detroit. Redl and his associates noted in a report of the 'Subcommittee on the Study of the Zoot-Suit Movement' that Zoot-Suiters, in addition to such seemingly harmless activities as the development of their own brand of double-talk language. While the growing generation gap between youth and authority figures continued to dominate the mass media in the post-World War II period, the focal point shifted to new media and youthful infatuations.
