KSP Winter/Spring 2022
30th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Civil Unrest
For the Winter/Spring 2022 cohort, KSP is studying the social construction of race, how neighborhoods in Los Angeles came to be, and the legacy of the 1992 civil unrest that decimated our Koreatown community through three days of protests that resulted in widespread and uncontained arson, looting and destruction. All of our youth participants—high school and college students, as well as recent college grads—were not yet born when this event transpired and many of them had never learned this history in school.
Each year, Koreatown has commemorated this anniversary with solemnity and reflection. Over the past three decades, there have been many academic studies, interviews, conferences, films, and books that examine the racial and sociohistorical contexts, mainstream media coverage, and systemic injustices and incidents that led to this uprising.
In 2022, KSP is examining the history and evolution of what is known to the Korean American community as “4.29” or “Saigu,” which is the hangul for the day of the Rodney King verdict. Our students will be interviewing members of the Latinx community—whose experiences, despite being the majority of residents in our neighborhood, are little documented. We will also be conducting oral histories with small business owners, community members, faith-based leaders, participants in the civil unrest—what does 4.29 mean to them?
We are particularly interested in what this anniversary means to our mutliethnic Los Angeles community after several years of racial reckoning in the U.S.—the BLM and Stop Asian Hate movements—forcing us to consider how much or little has changed. KSP will be generating stories and oral histories from our youth and elders to capture the continued significance of the civil unrest in our lives.
*As with all of the oral history narratives that we gather, the information contained in the content posted represents the views and opinions of the original creators and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of KSP or KYCC.
4.29 Microprojects
4.29 Latinx Roundtable
4.29 Story Map with UCLA and Bresee
Faith-Based Leaders
A Sa-I-Gu Dance
Roof Koreans
LAPL Panel with Actor & Author John Cho
Korean American Story Legacy Interview - Saigu
GYOPO/KSP YA Panel
KSP W/S 2022 Youth Participants
Our fourth cohort of KSP youth participants came from Koreatown high schools and/or from families who were affected by the Los Angeles Civil Unrest. Through workshops and interviews with residents and community leaders who lived through the event, we learned about the social, economic and personal impacts of the LA Civil Unrest and the lasting scars left on the community at large.
KSP Winter/Spring 2022 Elder Participants
We are interviewing the residents, business owners, and community leaders who were present at the time of the Los Angeles Civil Unrest. Our elder participants come from the Los Angeles areas of Koreatown and South Central, the two communities most primarily affected by the events in 1992. We are learning about their individual experiences of the LA Civil Unrest, and how it affected their lives and attitudes.