Please watch these videos when prompted by the actors during the performance of Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. Videos can also be watched before, during intermission, or after the performances.
ACT ONE
NO JUSTICE NO PEACE: THE STORY OF LATASHA HARLINS
VIDEO #1: Latasha Harlins Shooting
(Please click link to watch on YouTube.)
Latasha Harlins was a young Black girl who was shot down by a Korean shop owner, Mrs. Soon Fa Du. The facts are contested by both communities. For those on the side of Mrs. Du, Latasha was stealing orange juice and beating Mrs. Du with a chair; for those on the side of Harlins, Du shot her in the back over a carton of orange juice which Latasha had no intention of stealing. The judge's sentence was very light and many interpret the violence against Korean Americans during the riot that following the Rodney King trial as a reaction to the Harlins case, which was on trial one year before the King case. The trial was covered in Los Angeles newspapers.
THE STORY OF RODNEY KING
The First Trial/Simi Valley February 1992
VIDEO #2: The Beating of Rodney King, and the 1992 L.A. Riots
(Please click to watch on YouTube when prompted. Turn volume down on phone. Subtitles available.)
Filmed by a bystander, George Holliday, the savage beating of Rodney King led to the 1992 L.A. riots. This is the story of the first "viral" video of police brutality against a Black man.
ROCKED
VIDEO #3: The Beating of Reginald Denny
(Please click to watch on YouTube when prompted. Turn volume down on phone.)
Reginald Denny, a white truck driver, was pulled out of his truck and beaten by four Black men.
ACT TWO
THE NATIONAL GUARD COMES TO L.A.
VIDEO #4: George Bush, Sr.