Rising from the Ashes - Los Angeles, 1992. Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, Rodney King, and a City on Fire

In the spring of 1992, after a jury returned not guilty verdicts in the trial of four police officers charged in the brutal beating of a Black man, Rodney King, Los Angeles was torn apart. Thousands of fires were set, causing more than a billion dollars in damage. In neighborhoods abandoned by the police, protestors and storeowners exchanged gunfire. More than 12,000 people were arrested and 2,400 injured. Sixty-three died.

In Rising from the Ashes, award-winning author Paula Yoo draws on the experience of the city's Korean American community to narrate and illuminate this uprising, from the racism that created economically disadvantaged neighborhoods torn by drugs and gang-related violence, to the tensions between the city's minority communities. At its heart are the stories of three lives and three families: those of Rodney King; of Latasha Harlins, a Black teenager shot and killed by a Korean American storeowner; and Edward Jae Song Lee, a Korean American man killed in the unrest. Woven throughout, and set against a minute-by-minute account of the uprising, are the voices of dozens others: police officers, firefighters, journalists, business owners, and activists whose recollections give texture and perspective to the events of those five days in 1992 and their impact over the years that followed.

About the author

Paula Yoo is a prolific TV writer/producer, freelance violinist, and author of several books for children. Her young adult nonfiction debut, From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry, won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction, was a Finalist for the YALSA Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award and the L.A. Times Book Prize, and was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Her most recent book, Rising From the Ashes, won the YALSA Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Product details

• Authors: Paula Yoo
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 12 to 18
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 07.05.2024
• EAN: 9781324030904
• ISBN: 978-1-324-03090-4
• No. of pages: 368
• Dimensions: 160 mm x 239 mm x 23 mm
• Weight: 723 g
• Illustrations: Black-and-white photographs
• Subjects: Children's and young people's books > Non-fiction books / Non-fiction picture books > History, politics; USA, YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Social Topics / Prejudice & Racism, YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Social Topics / Violence, People & places (Children's / Teenage), United States of America, USA, Relating to Asian American people, Relating to African American / Black American people, YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Asian American & Pacific Islander, YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / African American & Black, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Violence