On August 11, 1965, only five days after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, Watts, a black neighborhood in Los Angeles, erupted in a chaos of looting, arson, and violence. During the next three years, 300 more race riots occurred in inner-city communities across the nation.

The Kerner report outlined core recommendations for a National Plan of Action, the goal of which was moving toward “a single society and a single American identity.” It called for the substantial investment of federal funds to assist African American communities and prevent further racial polarization and violence.

White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.” Its results suggested that one main cause of urban violence was white racism and suggested that white America bore much of the responsibility for black rioting and rebellion.

The immediate cause of the disturbances was the arrest of an African American man, Marquette Frye, by a white California Highway Patrol officer on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

A riot (/ˈraɪət/) is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private.

Four Black residents of South Central Los Angeles, Bobby Green Jr., Lei Yuille, Titus Murphy, and Terri Barnett, who had been watching the events on television, came to Denny’s aid.

Du was tried and convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Harlins’ death. The judge sentenced Du to 10 years in state prison but the sentence was suspended and the defendant was instead placed on five years probation with 400 hours of community service, a $500 restitution, and funeral expenses.

Deceased (1891–1967)

The other two were acquitted of the charges. In a separate civil lawsuit in 1994, a jury found the city of Los Angeles liable and awarded King $3.8 million in damages….

Los Angeles

The rioting took place in several areas in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, as thousands of people rioted over six days after the verdict’s announcement but were concentrated in the South Central area.

Koreatown (Korean: 코리아타운) is a neighborhood in central Los Angeles, California, centered near Eighth Street and Irolo Street, west of MacArthur Park. Koreans began immigrating in larger numbers in the 1960s and found housing in the Mid-Wilshire area.

Suzanne R. Morgan

five days

11, 1965, that Los Angeles police officer Lee Minikus tried to arrest Marquette Frye for driving drunk in the city’s Watts neighborhood—an event that led to one of the most infamous race riots in American history. Fifty years ago, Watts was a potent combination of segregation, unemployment and racial tension.

Riot police are police who are organized, deployed, trained or equipped to confront crowds, protests or riots. They may be employed to control riots as their name suggests, to disperse or control crowds, to maintain public order or discourage criminality, or to protect people or property.