Los Angeles looks a lot different than it did in 1992. The smoke and shattered glass are long gone, but the memories of the Los Angeles uprising, commonly known as the “L.A. riots,” have had lingering effects on black Angelenos.
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Twenty-five years ago, four white Los Angeles police officers were acquitted of beating Rodney King. The attack was caught on film, but the brutal scenes in the video didn’t lead to a conviction. The year prior, 15-year-old Latasha Harlins was shot in the head and killed by a Korean shop owner who accused Latasha of stealing a bottle of orange juice. Soon Ja Du was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, but avoided a prison sentence. Instead, she was slapped with a fine and put on probation.
These incidents, along with years of state-sanctioned violence and injustice, led to a breaking point for black Angelenos—a breaking point that would change the lives of everyone who lived through it.
The Associated Press took this photo of siblings LaDissa and Donnell Moore on May 3, 1992—four days after the start of the civil unrest:
For the 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles uprising, we visited the site where this photo was taken with the siblings and their father, Larry Donnell Moore, and chatted with the family about how the uprising shaped their lives. Watch above.
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