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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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Cobb, dean of the Columbia graduate school of journalism, co-edited the 2021 updated “Essential Kerner Commission Report,” originally written after the 1965 Watts Riots, and his new book dives into the hypocrisies of Black life in America.

From Los Angeles Times

The Headhunters returned to L.A. in August with the Fab Four to play two shows at the Hollywood Bowl just weeks after the Watts riots.

From Los Angeles Times

When the smoke went up from the Watts Riots in 1965, the San Fernando Valley scarcely knew where Watts was.

From Los Angeles Times

He is Black, and his grandmother lived in Watts during the 1965 Watts riots.

From Los Angeles Times

Powe went to Altadena after the Watts riots in 1965.

From Los Angeles Times