On the night of August 11, 1965, a routine drunk driving arrest on Avalon Boulevard and 116th Street escalated into an incident of police brutality, when cops beat down an African American family. Chanting "Burn, baby, burn!” an angry crowd of witnesses erupted, setting off riots that lasted for 5 days. The Watts Rebellion happened at the midpoint of the Sixties, and became the hinge on which the Civil Rights era became the Black Power era. The cultural aftershocks would reverberate for generations.
The Watts Prophets are a living bridge to this time. Contemporaries like more...
