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Watts riots

Cultural  
  1. A group of violent disturbances in Watts, a largely black section of Los Angeles, in 1965. Over thirty people died in the Watts riots, which were the first of several serious clashes between black people and police in the late 1960s.


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Los Angeles was the scene of another riot in 1992, triggered by the acquittal of white police officers accused of beating an African-American man named Rodney King.

Example Sentences

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Having weathered the Watts riots and in the midst of a hippie revolution, Los Angeles has changed too.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 19, 2024

Still, decades after the deadly 1965 Watts riots spurred construction of the original hospital — which was supposed to bring high-quality health care to poor neighborhoods in South Los Angeles — many disparities persist.

From Salon • Nov. 9, 2022

“The mouth that Hurd has painted is firm, even capable of meanness,” and the Vietnam War and Watts riots are reflected “in the furrows of the brow and eyes.”

From Washington Post • Sep. 7, 2022

Partnering with the Watts Labor Community Action Committee, a jobs and social services nonprofit born out of the 1965 Watts riots, they made a winning bid in 2004 to build food-processing facilities.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 19, 2022

He was a sheriff in L.A.; he quit after the Watts riots.

From Joe Burke's Last Stand by Wetterau, John Moncure

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