Looking Back on the L.A. Riots Through Five Documentaries
It’s not even properly a documentary at all, but one of the most insightful moments of cultural reflection on the L.A. Riots came just months after the fires in South Central and Koreatown ceased burning. In the September of , protagonists Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) and Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy) explore Los Angeles the day a jury handed down not-guilty verdicts for the four officers involved in the infamous Rodney King beating, which helped spark the unrest that became one of the most indelible race riots in American history. The two-part episode is ambitious, a rare on-location retelling that blends ample newsreel footage, radio snippets, and provocative performance art with a sitcom’s serial lesson-telling and a black family show’s moral framework. The episode is all the more remarkable because of the fabled role parent show , which aired its series finale during.
