Twenty-five years ago, a jury acquitted four white police officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King, sparking looting and violence that would turn into one of the deadliest race riots in American history.
On Saturday, hundreds of people marked the anniversary with marches advocating peace and hope. A “Future Fest” began at Florence and Normandie avenues – the South Los Angeles intersection where rioting erupted – and was followed by a community festival.
Organizer Eric Ares, 34, is a lifelong resident of the area. He remembers the electricity going out in his house at the start of the rioting, leaving his family essentially cut off from the outside world.
People had a “real feeling of anger and frustration,” but it was mainly directed at police, politicians and businesses they believed oppressed, neglected or exploited them, Ares said.
While the march and festival marks the events of a quarter-century ago, the commemoration also looked to a future where community organizations are working to deal with problems still confronting South L.A., Ares said.
“There’s still extreme poverty. There’s still issues of law enforcement, … education and health care and access to good jobs,” he said.
About five miles north of the intersection, a peace parade was held in the Koreatown neighborhood, where tensions between black residents and Korean-American immigrant storekeepers led to markets, shops and gas stations being looted or burned.
On Saturday, several hundred people marched in an enthusiastic show of unity that included Korean drummers in traditional costume, a South Los Angeles drumline, taekwando students and schoolchildren from Watts.
K. Choi, 73, of Arcadia, helped organize the original peace march days after the rioting and said he believed racial relations had vastly improved. “The politics and the social problems, whatever, all commingled together and then things exploded,” he said.
“But now is a very different situation,” he said. “All those relationships are getting better between (the) Korean and black community, including (the) Spanish community … and I hope we’re getting a better future.”