Rodney King: The Life and Times of an Accidental American Symbol

Photo by Justin Hoch

After reading this article, TheVillageCelebration invites you to share your memories of the 1991 Rodney King beating, the subsequent trial, or the Los Angeles riots in our comments section below. Or, you simply share your thoughts upon hearing of King’s death.

What happens to an ordinary man who, in the course of a troubled life, finds himself battered, bruised and embodying the racial frustrations of the nation?

Rodney King, who died this weekend at the age of 47, was in a position to tell us.  In fact, he wrote about it all in a book that came out last month. Penned with a co-writer, The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption recounts the events that have shaped King’s life since March 3, 1991.

That was the date a man named George Holliday videotaped four white Los Angeles police officers beating King after a high-speed chase. On March 4, Holliday delivered his tape to KTLA-TV; it went national, and millions of Americans watched the vicious drubbing on the news.

When, just over a year later, the four white LAPD officers were acquitted of beating King, riots exploded in South Central Los Angeles. The horrified national conversation that started with the beating videotape reignited with the violence.

• Timeline: Rodney King from 1991 to 2012 (CNN)

On May 1, 1992 came the sound bite that has echoed through the years since: King asked, “People, I just want to say, can we all get along? Can we get along?”

Overcoming addiction

Over the two decades since Americans first saw the King beating on the news, the man himself struggled with personal demons. He emerged into the national consciousness again in 2008 via—of all things—the show Celebrity Rehab on VH1.

On a you-can’t-make-this-up note, in 2010 King got engaged to one of the jurors in the civil case that won him more than three million dollars. Aside from that odd twist, King worked hard to get sober and rebuild relationships with family members—relationships destroyed by his years of drinking.

In the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, King appeared on CNN’s Piers Morgan tonight, speaking from the heart about the case and its ramifications.

Among his cohorts on Celebrity Rehab, King seemed the sanest and the most likely to succeed in kicking his addictions. I hope he did.

The Rodney King trajectory is replete with “Where were you when…?” moments, from the videotape’s release, to the trial and acquittal of the accused officers, the riots, and King’s famous question.

So where were you? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

More about Rodney King:

• USA Today: Rodney King, 1965-2012
• CNN.com: Rodney King dead at 47
• CNN’s Don Lemon: “Race and Rage”

Reading list:

• The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption by Rodney King and Lawrence J. Spagnola (2012)
• Official Negligence : How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD by Lou Cannon (1999)
• Presumed Guilty: The Tragedy of the Rodney King Affair by Stacey Koon (1992)
• Understanding the Riots: Los Angeles Before and After the Rodney King Case by the Staff of the Los Angeles Times (1996)