Description

Winner of the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award, this powerful book has been recognized as one of the best of the year by Horn Book Fanfare, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and Chicago Public Library.

Paula Yoo presents a comprehensive and deeply layered account of the events leading up to, during, and following the 1992 Los Angeles uprising.

In the spring of 1992, Los Angeles erupted after a jury acquitted four police officers charged with the brutal beating of Rodney King. The city was engulfed in flames as thousands of fires burned, resulting in over a billion dollars in damages. With law enforcement largely absent in some areas, violent clashes broke out between protestors and storeowners. More than 12,000 people were arrested, 2,400 were injured, and 63 lost their lives.

Through the perspective of the city’s Korean American community, this book examines the deep-seated racism that created struggling neighborhoods marked by poverty, crime, and gang violence, as well as the mounting tensions between minority groups in Los Angeles. At its center are the stories of three individuals and their families: Rodney King, whose beating ignited the unrest; Latasha Harlins, a Black teenager fatally shot by a Korean American storeowner; and Edward Jae Song Lee, a Korean American man killed during the chaos. Their experiences are interwoven with the voices of police officers, firefighters, journalists, business owners, and activists, providing a moment-by-moment retelling of the uprising and its lasting consequences.

Featuring black-and-white photographs, Rising from the Ashes offers an unflinching look at a pivotal moment in American history and its enduring impact on race relations and community tensions.