Fifty years after the riots, Take Two broadcasts live from Watts with conversations about its history, the arts, the people, and the community today.
Watts 50: Behind the scenes of Take Two's live broadcast
On Tuesday August 11, 2015, Take Two took the show on the road to mark the 50th anniversary of what is commonly known as the Watts Riots.
More than 200 people filled the Phoenix Room of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee on South Central Ave, just a mile away from Avalon and 116th Street, the site where Marquette Frye, a young African-American man was stopped on suspicion of drunk driving by a white officer on a hot summer's day 50 years earlier.
That traffic stop led to six days of civil unrest and what many in Watts call the rebellion. Thirty four people died between August 11 and 17. Hundreds more were injured and damage to property totaled over $40 million.
Listen to Dr. Perry Crouch, Pastor Robert Lee Arline, Paul Martinez, Dearthy Pitcher - Henderson, Barbara J. Stanton and Donnie Joubert recall their memories of the unrest in Watts in 1965 as part of the "This is Watts" project, sponsored by the Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with The Los Angeles Human Relations Commission and Councilman Buscaino.
Tim Watkins, CEO of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee recalls one of his memories of the civil unrest;
"One of the photographs [in my mind] is Sen-Sen - a breath freshener. It was one of the only things that didn't burn up in the fire .. it was in a foil packet. The guy in the liquor store said we could go in and get whatever we wanted and I got Sen-Sen."
Take Two's live two hour show from Watts - the first time the program has broadcast from a remote location - did more than look back on the '65 unrest. It delved into the stories of the people who live in the 2.2 square mile South Los Angeles neighborhood and shared how locals view the place they call home.
"Watts is beautiful," said Bruce Lemon, artistic director with the Watts Village Theater Company. His colleague, Devonne Bowman said she had no issues being raised in Watts.
" I personally never had any interactions with feeling fear or violence. I just grew up thinking that my neighborhood was like any other neighborhood, until I got to high school and people would say 'oh, girl, you live in Watts?' Then when I went to college people would say 'you made it out' even people from L.A. would say that. I was very surprised."
The conversation covered everything from the changing demographics in Watts and tackling gang membership to parenting through the group, Project Fatherhood and the issue of community policing. LAPD's Senior Lead Officer for Watts, Robert Yanez acknowledged the area had its problems in the past, but things are very different today.
"I walk through the housing developments with no problem because people know I'm not there to take them to jail. They say hello and ask me how I'm doing. "
The live broadcast closed out with a look at the significance of the arts in Watts. It played a significant role in the healing of Watts after the civil unrest, represented by the work of poets such as the Watts Prophets. One of the original members, Amde Hamilton recorded a special poem for the audience, while Johnie Scott from the Watts Writers Workshop and Shana Redmond, author of "Anthem: Sounds of Solidarity in the African Diaspora" discussed the intersection of music and poetry to round out the show. The conversation continued long after the program ended.
Two hours was never going to be enough to cover the past, present and future of a neighborhood in transition, but the team at Take Two would like to thank everyone who came out to listen and participate in our special Watts broadcast.
Watch the Livestream of the event below or listen to the full broadcast here.
The Watts Riots: looking back
On August 11, 1965, a young black man named Marquette Frye was arrested at the intersection of Avalon and 116th Street.
It was a hot summer's day when Frye was stopped on suspicion of drunk driving by a white police officer.
Soon after that stop - a crowd gathered, arrests were made and six days of civil unrest followed.
There was looting and arson. The National Guard was called in. By week's end, there were 34 dead and more than $40 million in damage.
All that violence and destruction was about so much more than a mere traffic stop.
To put the events of the past in context and understand what Watts is today, Alex Cohen speaks to resident Tim Watkins, the CEO of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee, and Brenda Stevenson, a professor at UCLA who specializes in the history of race.
The conservation kicked off a special broadcast from the WLCAC in Watts on Tuesday, Aug 11th.
Please click on the link below to listen to the whole interview. The whole broadcast is also available on our website at TakeTwoShow.org
Building trust: Policing in Watts
Community policing is front and center in the news.
In recent weeks , Take Two has covered the death of Sandra Bland, an African-American woman who died in custody after being arrested on the roadside in Texas.
August 8 marked the first anniversary of the death of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, which sparked months of protests across the country.
Closer to home, on August 11, 2014, Ezell Ford, a 25-year-old black man, was shot by LAPD officers and died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds.
This news has many questioning -- has policing in black communities really changed?
As part of Take Two's live broadcast from Watts, host A Martinez sat down with the LAPD's Senior Lead Officer for Watts Robert Yanez, and Priscilla Ocen, professor of law at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.
Arts in Watts: a legacy of music, poetry, innovation
Throughout the history of Watts, the arts have played an important role: creating a place for expression and reflection and providing a way for residents to envision what their community would become.
After the civil unrest in 1965, that art took on new meaning. Joining us to discuss the role of art in South L.A. are the following guests:
Shana Redmond, author of Anthem: Sounds of Solidarity in the African Diaspora, and professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC.
Amde Hamilton, who formed the Watts Prophets along with Richard Dedeaux and Otis O' Solomon.
Johnie Scott, a co-founder of the Watts Writers Workshop and currently a professor in the Pan African Studies Department at Cal State Northridge.
Today's Watts is mostly Latino. What do they remember of the 1965 riots?
The Watts of today is vastly different than what the streets looked like in 1965.
According to the 1970 Census, if you put 10 neighbors in a room, eight of them would be black and just one would have been Latino.
Fast-forward to today and those numbers have almost flipped: now, seven of those neighbors are Latino and only two are black.
It's a dramatic shift for Watts, but do those residents relate to any of that history from the unrest in 1965?
Joining Take Two are Arturo Ybarra, founder of the advocacy group The Watts/Century Latino Organization, and Oscar Menjivar, born and raised in Watts and also the founder of the program Teens Exploring Technology.
'Project Fatherhood': Dads in Watts work to become better fathers
Every Wednesday night, a group of fathers get together at the Jordan Downs Community Center in Watts for an informal meeting called Project Fatherhood.
Project Fatherhood was designed to help men living in Watts to answer a key, difficult question: "How can I be a good father when I've never had one?"
The founders of Project Fatherhood, former gang leader turned community activist Big Mike Cummings, and Jorga Leap of UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs join Take Two.
Leap is also the author of the new book "Project Fatherhood: A Story of Courage and Healing in One of America's Toughest Communities."
To hear the full interview with Mike Cummings and Jorja Leap, click the link above.
Growing up in Watts
There are a lot of misconceptions about life in Watts, so to really find out what growing up in Watts is like, we followed two young residents, Bruce Lemon Jr. and Devonne Bowman, around their home town and listened in on their thoughts..
Amde Hamilton, founding member of the Watts Prophets, on growing up in South LA and the power of art
One of the early groups to come from Watts after the events of 1965 was the Watts Prophets. The group combined jazz, funk and spoken word to create some of the most memorable poetry of the time.
They're also seen as a key precursor to hip-hop.
"We were the ones that weren't being represented in South Central Los Angeles," said Amde Hamilton, who formed the Watts Prophets along with Richard Dedeaux and Otis O' Solomon.
"We couldn't cross Alameda when I was a young man, and we couldn't go very far across Figueroa, [and] we were restricted by those boundaries," said Hamilton.
"So yes, we did feel very isolated."
The poetry from the Watts Prophets – and others who participated in the early days of the influential Watts Writers Workshop – aimed to address that experience through the arts.
View a 1993 video from the Watts Prophets: