Award-winning author Paula Yoo delivers a compelling, nuanced account of Los Angeles’s 1992 uprising and its impact on its Korean and Black American communities.
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.
AWARDS
2024 JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD GOLD STANDARD
KIRKUS STARRED REVIEW –
A nuanced and necessary narrative. An account of the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, focusing particularly on the stories of Rodney King, Latasha Harlins, and Eddie Lee. Protests erupted in Los Angeles County in April 1992, following the shocking acquittal of four police officers accused of using excessive force in brutally beating King, an unarmed Black man, during a traffic arrest in March 1991. Latasha, a 15-year-old Black girl, also died in March 1991, after being fatally shot from behind by South Korean immigrant store owner Soon Ja Du following a dispute over a bottle of orange juice. Readers get to know King as a loving father, Latasha as a poet and honor student, and Du as a wife and mother working 14-hour days without respite. With tensions already high due to Du’s incredibly lenient sentencing in November 1991, violence exploded hours after the acquittal of King’s attackers a few months later. Eddie Lee, an 18-year-old Korean American college student, went with friends—against his mother’s wishes—to help protect Koreatown shops that were going up in flames and was shot to death, caught in the crossfire between demonstrators and store owners and becoming a symbol of the tragedy. Using scores of interviews, direct quotes, news reports, and archival photographs to sculpt this thoroughly researched history, Yoo vividly and movingly conveys the broader historical context and the many lives that were affected, shedding light on systemic challenges that continue today. A nuanced and necessary narrative. (maps, author’s note, in memoriam list, endnotes, bibliography, credits, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)
BOOKLIST –
Yoo outlines every detail, painting as clear of a picture as possible, and includes multiple perspectives and explanations of topics like redlining, policing, and legal matters to provide context to young readers… humanizing every person mentioned.
BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN’S BOOKS STARRED REVIEW –
Yoo (From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry, 2021) tells the whole stories of Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, and Rodney King, who were each victims of racial profiling, police brutality, and a criminalized landscape that left them behind. Yoo outlines every detail, painting as clear of a picture as possible, and includes multiple perspectives and explanations of topics like redlining, policing, and legal matters to provide context to young readers. Similarly, an introduction to gang violence and drugs and the effects these have on communities is handled carefully, but their severity is not minimized. The victims’ stories are also not sanitized, but the attention to matters that contributed to the events turns true-crime tales into a look at people’s real lives. By humanizing every person mentioned, Yoo rationalizes the American dream in the eyes of Korean immigrants and the ways in which their communities clashed with those disadvantaged and already in the U.S. By Vi Kwartler
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY STARRED REVIEW –
Via vivid prose, Yoo (From a Whisper to a Rally) depicts the events surrounding the acquittal of the four police officers who brutalized Black motorist Rodney King in 1992 L.A. By centering the violent attempted arrest of Black 21-year-old Marquette Frye in 1965, the author contextualizes the history of the LAPD’s racist policing and emphasizes how incidents such as King’s were not isolated. King’s case, along with the 1991 killing of Black 15-year-old Latasha Harlins, had far-reaching implications that would impact L.A.’s Black and Korean communities and led to the death of Korean American 18-year-old Edward Jae Song Lee during the 1992 L.A. Riots. Tensions between the communities are equitably highlighted as Yoo outlines the system that still denies both groups basic rights by recounting details from King, Harlins, and Lee’s lives. Moments of solidarity are peppered throughout, as when Black residents protect a Korean-owned music stall from destruction amid societal unrest. Yoo’s message of empathy, progress, and resilience following tragedy prove resonant in this moving account that remains relevant to contemporary society, in which smartphones have replaced camcorders in individuals’ quest to expose police brutality and systemic racism. Includes abundant back matter. Ages 12–up. Agent: Tricia Lawrence, Emily Murphy Literary. (May) Correction: The text of this review has been updated for clarity.
WE ARE TEACHERS –
The 1992 Los Angeles uprisings followed the brutal police beating of Rodney King. Sadly, this topic still resonates strongly today, making this new nonfiction read both relevant and riveting. The information is well researched and movingly presented, using historical context to shed light on issues that fired uprisings then and continue to do so today.
HORN BOOK STARRED REVIEW –
Yoo (From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry, rev. 5/21) provides a comprehensive, kaleidoscopic account of what happened before, during, and after the 1992 Los Angeles uprising from multiple points of view, with a strong focus on the disproportionally targeted Korean American community. The deadly violence and turmoil in South Los Angeles and Koreatown were sparked by outrage over not-guilty verdicts for four police officers who beat Black motorist Rodney King, and at the lenient punishment for the Korean store owner who killed teen Latasha Harlins in a dispute over a bottle of orange juice. Using extensive research and original reporting, Yoo creates deeply humanizing portraits of King; Harlins; Edward Jae Song Lee, a young man killed trying to protect a pizza parlor; and their families. Yoo’s account includes how police decisions and sensationalized news coverage escalated the civil unrest. She offers context for additional contributing factors—decades of systemic racism, police corruption, endemic poverty, gang and drug violence. Hopeful elements include stories of civilians saving and helping others, a massive peace rally that galvanized Korean Americans, and two more trials for King. The text concludes with an update on the victims’ families and others and an analysis of changes within the neighborhoods. A powerful and compelling history book that shows how the past still affects the present. Extensive back matter includes an “in memoriam” to all victims; source notes; a bibliography, and an index (unseen). By Michelle Lee
READING AHEAD –
Author Paula Yoo writes with careful crafting of the stories of three families at the heart of these events. Wishing to help readers understand that no one single group or event was the cause of the violence that horrified the world, Yoo weaves together police history, immigration and migration, racist reporting by major news media, neighborhood groups, economic misery, the crack epidemic, and choices made throughout the participants’ lives. Her narrative is compelling, balanced, and respectful. Yoo researched historical records but she also interviewed family and friends and eyewitnesses, those who didn’t find it too painful to recall those days. Yoo’s writing presents facts alongside emotions. She provides details that make her weaving more textured. Throughout the book, her language brought tears to my eyes with its fairness and empathy. Masterful writing. By Vicki Palmquist
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL STARRED REVIEW –
As news quickly spread that the four officers accused of using excessive force in the beating of Rodney King in 1992 received “not guilty” verdicts, protests and violence unfolded across Los Angeles. The city on fire and loss of life was just the culmination of years of unrest and racial tensions. Yoo explores the historical and social contributions to the riots, anchoring the narrative through the lives of King; Latasha Harlins, a 15-year-old girl shot by a Korean store owner; and Eddie Lee, who was shot and killed during the uprising. In a relatively brief text, Yoo offers a complex and nuanced look at racial inequities, the war on drugs, and policing. The impossible task of distilling years of conflict and turmoil into a condensed space is achieved with grace and representation, including interviews, photos, news reports, and more. The narrative unfolding of events is sometimes interrupted by the changing of perspectives or contextual background on a new subject being introduced; however, the overall flow and delivery of information are solid. The photos, which include crime scene photos of gunshot wound victims, may be triggering for some readers. VERDICT Yoo’s book is an important, balanced text for collections working to build digestible historical titles related to race and America. Reviewed by Kaitlin Malixi