LOS ANGELES (AP) - The 25th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots is being commemorated with peaceful marches and calls for a better future.
Hundreds of people rallied Saturday at the intersection of Florence and Normandie avenues in South Los Angeles where the violence began.
People in the predominantly black community were outraged by the acquittal of four white police officers who beat black motorist Rodney King. Three days of burning, looting and beatings followed, leaving more than 50 people dead.
Rally organizer and South L.A. resident Eric Ares says people were fed up with police violence and political neglect. But Ares says the commemoration looks hopefully toward solving the problems of poverty and violence.
Meanwhile, black residents and Korean-Americans held a peace parade in Koreatown, where many shops were looted and burned in the riot.
Seventy-three-year-old K. Choi says racial relations between African-Americans and Korean-Americans have vastly improved since those bitter times.