L.A. Riots Spawn Community-Activist Groups With Mixed Records

The Los Angeles Times examines the achievements and failures of the raft of community-activist organizations that emerged in South Los Angeles after the 1992 riots.

The most prominent group, Rebuild L.A.—a five-year project launched by then-Mayor Tom Bradley to flood the community with investment and services—quickly garnered $500-million in corporate commitments but ended up delivering far less than it had promised.

Other groups, such as Community Coalition and Agenda, have had greater success tackling the poverty, unemployment, and racial tension that contributed to the 1992 unrest on a more modest, grass-roots scale.

“One difference between those who survived is vision,” said Anthony Thigpenn, the founder of Agenda, which is now called Strategic Concepts in Organizing & Policy Education. “You have to be able to deliver something over time. You are not going to eliminate poverty in South Los Angeles. But you have to have goals.”