NORFOLK, Va. — There was an eruption in Los Angeles 30 years ago today on April 29, 1992.
Anger and frustration boiled over onto the streets of South Los Angeles.
Before Black Lives Matter, before George Floyd, Freddie Gray, and Eric Garner - these riots were our reference point for civil unrest following police brutality.
“This generation wasn’t born,” said Lora King. “But it is a historical moment.”
Lora King is the daughter of Rodney King – the Black man savagely beaten by four Los Angeles police officers in what would become the first viral video of apparent police brutality.
The L.A. Riots happened one year after that assault, following the acquittal of the officers by an almost all-white jury.
30 years later, tense police interactions with Black people have become the focal point of a national dialogue on race, the criminal justice system, and those sworn to protect it and us.
The uprising in L.A. no longer stands alone. There is now an organized movement, Black Lives Matter, seen and heard not just on TV, but in every major city in America firsthand.
It’s a movement that led to a rare conviction of a police officer in one of the most prominent police brutality cases today - the death of George Floyd.
King called it progress.
“I think that no matter how bad things get, that gave me a sense of hope and the world a sense of hope,” she said. “That we are moving forward. Even though it’s at a turtle’s pace, we are moving forward.”