Rodney King.Photo: David Longstreath/AP/Shutterstock
Lora King was 8 years old on April 29, 1992, when she and her older sister decided to go to the neighborhood liquor store for candy. When they arrived, the South Los Angeles store was on fire. They didn’t know what was going on until they heard people chanting their father’s name:Rodney King.
The sisters ran home, and when the family turned on the news they saw a riot unfolding, the city’s reaction to the acquittal of four Los Angeles policemen — three of them white — after the beating of Rodney King, who was arrested on March 3, 1991, at the end of a high-speed chase. All told, more than 50 people died and more than 2,000 people were injured during the five days of unrest.
“It was just stressful for him, because he didn’t want that to happen,” says Lora, now 38. “He didn’t wish that upon anybody.”
Courtesy of Lora King
On May 1, three days into the riots, King stood outside a Beverly Hills courthouse, made a public appeal to stop the unrest, and asked, in words that have endured 30 years later: “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?”
Lora says that her father was speaking from his heart — in his own words.
“They actually gave him something that they wrote for him,” she says. “And he didn’t say that. He could’ve been bitter. He could’ve been upset because we were upset. And he wasn’t, he just wanted to stop the violence — for the old people, and the kids, and just period. Even if that wasn’t my father, I would still say that, out of all the things in the world to say, I thought that was brave.”
Rodney King was an unemployed construction worker on parole in 1991 when he took police on a high-speed chase through Los Angeles. When he was finally pulled over, he was directed to get out of his vehicle. Subsequently, officers kicked him and beat him savagely with batons.
Lora King.Irfan Khan/instagram
Lora was living in Montclair, Calif., with her mother, grandmother and step grandfather when she saw the televised beating. “I was watching just like the world was, in disbelief,” she says. “I was in the living room playing, and I saw it on the news, and I thought to myself, ‘Whoever this human was, they’re not going to live through anything like that.’ And then I realized that was my father. It was very traumatic.”
A few days later, she visited King at the rehabilitation center where he was recovering from his injuries.
“The only reason I knew it was him was from his smile and his voice,” says Lora. “Other than that, I didn’t really recognize him. I didn’t really feel comfortable at all. It was scary to me.”
Los Angeles Riots.Lindsay Brice/Getty
But that was just the first of many frightening encounters connected to the riots.
“People were calling and showing up at our house,” she says. “And it was just so much crazy stuff going on, so we moved. The KKK would call and harass us. I went to a public school, so it was not safe. I had to get out of school for a couple months.”
‘You Can’t Ever Have a Normal Day Again’
In April 1994, King received $3.8 million in damages from the city of Los Angeles, but his daughter says half of the money went to legal fees.
He bought a home in Rialto, Calif., and made some money participating in celebrity boxing matches. He also took part in the VH1 reality series “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.”
But over the years, King struggled with his notoriety, as well as with alcoholism.
According to Lora, his high-profile status made it impossible for him to live a regular life.
“I couldn’t imagine living through something like that and being normal again,” she says. “You can’t have those days where you’re just, ‘let me go to the store quick.’ You never ever have those days again. You can’t ever have a normal day ever again.”
She says she understands why her father fled from the police that day.
“I don’t support him running, but I know why he ran,” she says. “He ran because he knew what was going to happen, because it was normal behavior of the police doing that to men, but of course, the world doesn’t know that because most people aren’t Black, so they don’t think that happens.”
Her father, she says, had to regularly relive the trauma of what happened to him both mentally and physically.
Honoring Her Father’s Example
In 2012, King drowned in his backyard swimming pool at the age of 47, just weeks after releasing his memoir, TheRiot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption.
At the end of his life, she says, he was happy. He spent much of his time helping others and serving as a beacon for racial understanding.
“I think he didn’t like people judging him, but he also reached a point where he didn’t really care at some point,” says Lora. “I think he was able to take a deep breath. He wasn’t a person that dwelled in sorrow. He wasn’t a person that had bitterness or hatefulness in his heart.”
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Today, Lora keeps her father’s memory alive through theRodney King Foundation, which provides youth mentoring, a scholarship to celebrate Black fathers and leadership camps. The goal is to “close the gaps that exist between all human beings and #GetAlong.”
She says in many ways she is mimicking her dad.
“Even though there would be times when he didn’t have money, he’d go to school and help kids get uniforms. He’d feed families. He would have us standing in front of McDonald’s passing out McDonald’s books. He would give you the shirt off his back and one kidney if he had two,” she says.
source: people.com
