Results tagged “wattsriots”

Born in Japan as the only child of a Japanese mother and Anglo American father, novelist Nina Revoyr now makes her home in Los Angeles. Nina mines childhood experiences living in South Central to craft exquisite novels about the historical interrelationships between Angelenos of Asian American and African American descent. Indeed, her second novel, Southland, literally explores the historical connection between the two communities as the book's protagonist tries to solve a family mystery involving her grandfather's secret will and a 40 year old murder case that awakens memories of the internment of Japanese American citizens and Japanese nationals during WWII and the Watts Riots. The Los Angeles Times named the novel one of the best books of 2003. Nina's work has been featured in many magazines, newspapers, and radio shows, including the Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, and NPR's Weekend Edition.

We hadn't seen much connection between the riots in Parisian suburbs and Los Angeles but according to Fred Hutchison at Renew America, the connection is obvious: our liberal mind is just too addled to see it.

As The Times reminded us this morning (and with on-going opinion series), today marks the 40th Anniversary of the Watts Riots. The oral history today, particularly the words of arresting officer Lee Minikus, provide some compelling perspective on the incident that sparked the outrage. NBC's Furnell Chatman did some investigative reporting of his own while Long Beach remembers how the riots reached them. The Weekly reviews two recent documentaries on the event.