IHS Panel: Rodney King and the LA Riots: 30 Years Later

Institute for Historical Studies, Tuesday March 30, 2021

Thirty years ago, in March 1991, Rodney King, a Black man, was stopped after a police chase, ordered out of his car, and beaten savagely by Los Angeles police officers. An amateur videographer filmed the beating and sent the footage to a local news station. As the film was broadcast across the U.S., the incident came to symbolize the wider issue of disproportionate police brutality against minorities. In the wake of recent events, including the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Institute for Historical Studies has organized this panel to discuss an issue that is no less pressing today than it was in 1991. To address the wider scope of the phenomenon, it will also include an examination of the long history of police violence targeting multiple racial and ethnic minorities in Texas.

Featured Panelists:

“The 1992 Los Angeles Rebellion and the Evolution of Black Power”
DR. PENIEL E. JOSEPH
Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values, Professor of History, and Founding Director, Center for the Study of Race and Democracy
The University of Texas at Austin
https://csrd.lbj.utexas.edu
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/history/faculty/pej335
https://lbj.utexas.edu/directory/faculty/peniel-joseph

“Under Cloak of Legal Authority: Police Violence and Racial Terror in Texas”
DR. MONICA MUÑOZ MARTINEZ
Associate Professor, Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/history/faculty/mmm497
https://monicamunozmartinez.com/

“From Cleveland to Compton: The Moore Family and the Second Great Migration”
DR. LEONARD N. MOORE
Executive Director, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), and George W. Littlefield Professorship in American History
The University of Texas at Austin
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/history/faculty/lm25645

DR. MIRIAM BODIAN, Moderator
Professor, Department of History, and Director, Institute for Historical Studies
University of Texas at Austin
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/history/faculty/mb35382

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