1992 Los Angeles riots — Bunk History

Oprah Winfrey speaking at a podium.

Oprah’s Shows on the L.A. Riots Reveal What We’ve Lost Without Her Program

The power of daytime talk shows — especially “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

by Leah Wright Rigueur, Kellie Carter Jackson via Made By History on May 2, 2022

In 1992, a fire burns out of control at 67th Street and West Boulevard in South Central Los Angeles. (Paul Sakuma/AP)

The L.A. Uprisings Sparked an Evangelical Racial Reckoning

But it remains unfinished.

by Jane H. Hong via Made By History on April 29, 2022

People on the street and burning car amidst debris

Los Angeles Could Have Rebuilt a Better City After the Rodney King Violence. Here's Why It Failed.

Leading gangs in Los Angeles were making peace as the city burned. How the city failed them rewrites our understanding of that moment.

by Elizabeth Hinton via TIME on May 18, 2021

Collage of American events in the 1990s.

The Nutty Nineties

What was in the water circa 1992?

by Katrina Gulliver via Law & Liberty on July 9, 2024

Newark protesters and National Guard

A Warning Ignored

America did exactly what the Kerner Commission on the urban riots of the mid-1960s advised against, and fifty years later reaped the consequences it predicted.

by Jelani Cobb via New York Review of Books on July 29, 2021

African American man leaning on his car, by a wall spray painted with the words "let's remember McDuffie"

The Long, Painful History of Racial Unrest

A lethal incident of police brutality in Miami in 1979 offers just one of countless examples of the reality generations of African Americans have faced.

by Ashley Howard via Smithsonian on August 28, 2020

Demonstrators against police brutality.

The Explicit Anthem of Anti-Racist Protest

Rap group N.W.A. understood vulgarity and controversy were necessary to draw attention to police brutality.

by Felicia Angeja Viator via Made By History on June 22, 2020

No Justice, No Peace

To understand the slogan's meaning, consider the words of Martin Luther King, who saw the riots of the 1960s as not revolutionary enough.

by Asad Haider via Viewpoint Magazine on June 4, 2020

A 'Hamilton'-esque Scandal Helped Give Trump his Cudgel

On the origins of the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to call on federal troops and state militias to put down insurrections.

by Gautham Rao via CNN on June 2, 2020

Black and white photo of three African-American men with signs that state, "I am a man," as a military tank rolls through the street

Insurrection in the Eye of the Beholder

The Insurrection Act of 1807, which Trump has threatened to invoke, is the linchpin of several iconic events in African American history.

by Hawa Allan via The Baffler on June 2, 2020

Will Urban Uprisings Help Trump? Actually, They Could Be His Undoing.

As a historian, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the fallout from Watts and other rebellions.

by Rick Perlstein via Mother Jones on May 31, 2020

Protester on his knees holding a sign faces police.

Los Angeles Showed in 1992 How Not To Respond To Today’s Uprisings

The lessons of the 1992 Los Angeles uprising and its aftermath still resonate.

by V. N. Trinh via Made By History on May 31, 2020

Dr. Dre: The Chronic

Revisiting the timeless 1992 debut from Dr. Dre, a historic moment in hip-hop that redefined West Coast rap.

by Sheldon Pearce via Pitchfork on December 15, 2019

What the LAPD Recruitment Ad on Breitbart Says About the Department’s History

Becoming an agency that wouldn't dream of advertising on Breitbart will require deep changes.

by Max Felker-Kantor via Made By History on October 9, 2019

Revisiting the Most Political 'Star Trek' Episode

In 1995, the "Deep Space Nine" installment “Past Tense” stood out for its realistic, near-future vision of racism and economic injustice.

by Robert Greene II via The Atlantic on October 8, 2017

Athlete Activists

The autobiography of NBA star Craig Hodges contains lessons for the pro athletes who are speaking up today.

by Jules Boykoff via Public Books on May 12, 2017

Soldiers around tanks on the street.

Want to Understand the 1992 LA Riots? Start with the 1984 LA Olympics

The causes were many, but police brutality and economic insecurity were supercharged in Los Angeles after the 1984 Olympics.

by Dave Zirin via The Nation on April 30, 2012

Sign on fence reading "This is a D.A.R.E. drug free school zone."

D.A.R.E. Is More Than Just Antidrug Education—It Is Police Propaganda

DARE lost its once hegemonic influence over drug education, but it had long-lasting effects on American policing, politics, and culture.

by Max Felker-Kantor via Public Books on April 17, 2024

Nicki Minaj and the autobiography of Malcolm X written by Alex Haley.

It’s Bigger Than Hip-Hop

We cannot understand the last fifty years of U.S. history—certainly not the first thing about Black history—without studying the emergence and evolution of rap.

by Austin McCoy via The Baffler on January 9, 2024

James Baldwin

Reading Baldwin After Kanye

A conversation about James Baldwin’s 1967 essay, “Negroes are Anti-Semitic Because They are Anti-White.”

by Marc Lamont Hill, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Daniel May, Ben Ratskoff, nyle fort via Jewish Currents on September 29, 2023

Police shoot pepper spray at demonstrators during a protest

The Hidden Obstacle to Police Accountability

The police are an insulated political institution within cities empowered to enforce a racialized social order.

by Max Felker-Kantor via Made By History on April 16, 2021

A graffiti mural in Los Angeles

The Emergence Of Gangsta Rap

A review of "To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America."

by Katherine Rye Jewell via The Metropole on March 30, 2021

A collage of Black and Asian people with an upside down American flag in the background

How Racism and White Supremacy Fueled a Black-Asian Divide in America

After a recent surge in anti-Asian attacks, the narrative quickly turned to hostilities between Black and Asian American communities.

by Jerusalem Demsas, Rachel Ramirez via Vox on March 16, 2021

Representatives Young Kim and Michelle Steele

What the Election of Asian American GOP Women Means For the Party

While American conservatism remains largely White, it has slowly but surely become less so.

by Jane H. Hong via Made By History on March 8, 2021

Rodney King at a press conference surrounded by reporters

Video of the Police Assault of Rodney King Shocked Us. But What Did It Change?

Thirty years after the police beating of Rodney King, it's clear that shock and anger don't translate into meaningful reform.

by Felicia Angeja Viator via Made By History on March 3, 2021

Liberal Reform Threatens to Expand the Police Power – Just as it Did in the Past

How calls for “real reforms” have resulted in measures that further shield police from real accountability.

by Max Felker-Kantor via HNN on June 28, 2020

Asian Americans Are Still Caught in the Trap of the ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype

Generations of Asian Americans have struggled to prove an Americanness that should not need to be proven.

by Viet Thanh Nguyen via TIME on June 26, 2020

Black and white photo of black child with his hands up, with police wielding weapons behind him

The 1968 Kerner Commission Report Still Echoes Across America

Anger over policing and inequality boiled over more than 50 years ago, and a landmark report warned that it could happen again.

by Clyde Haberman via Retro Report on June 23, 2020

The Racist History of Curfews in America

The restrictions imposed during recent racial justice protests have their roots in efforts to “contain” Black Americans.

by Linda Poon via CityLab on June 18, 2020

From left, actors Bernnadette Stanis, John Amos and Ja'Net Dubois accept the Impact Award for “Good Times” at the 2006 TV Land Awards in Santa Monica, Calif. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Television Is Already Moving to Address Racism — But Will the Effort Last?

Past network efforts to address racism faded as uprisings stopped dominating headlines.

by Kate L. Flach via Made By History on June 11, 2020

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