The Setting, Civil Unrest, and the Public Response

The Los Angeles unrest spilled across the classes and cultures. Violence flowed beyond the borders of South-Central Los Angeles, which is heavily African American and Latino, into Koreatown to the north. Hundreds of Korea-owned shops were damaged and looted. Tensions already had been running high between the African American community and Korean-American shopkeepers. Resentments were exacerbated when a Korean grocer was sentenced to probation for fatally shooting a 15-year-old black girl last year in the grocer's store. In this section we summarize various information about South-Central Los Angeles and Koreatown, the two areas most affected by the riots. The first part of this section includes demographic data for the communities. The second part provides data on the riots and the damages they caused. The third part describes community and government responses to the riots and economic conditions of the area.

New Inititatives for a New Los Angeles

Continue to A. The Setting

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