The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins: Justice, Gender, and the Origins of the LA Riots, by Brenda Stevenson
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The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins: Justice, Gender, and the Origins of the LA Riots, by Brenda Stevenson
Download Ebook The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins: Justice, Gender, and the Origins of the LA Riots, by Brenda Stevenson
Helicopters patrolled low over the city, filming blocks of burning cars and buildings, mobs breaking into storefronts, and the vicious beating of truck driver Reginald Denny. For a week in April 1992, Los Angeles transformed into a cityscape of rage, purportedly due to the exoneration of four policemen who had beaten Rodney King. It should be no surprise that such intense anger erupted from something deeper than a single incident. In The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins, Brenda Stevenson tells the dramatic story of an earlier trial, a turning point on the road to the 1992 riot. On March 16, 1991, fifteen-year-old Latasha Harlins, an African American who lived locally, entered the Empire Liquor Market at 9172 South Figueroa Street in South Central Los Angeles. Behind the counter was a Korean woman named Soon Ja Du. Latasha walked to the refrigerator cases in the back, took a bottle of orange juice, put it in her backpack, and approached the cash register with two dollar bills in her hand-the price of the juice. Moments later she was face-down on the floor with a bullet hole in the back of her head, shot dead by Du. Joyce Karlin, a Jewish Superior Court judge appointed by Republican Governor Pete Wilson, presided over the resulting manslaughter trial. A jury convicted Du, but Karlin sentenced her only to probation, community service, and a $500 fine. The author meticulously reconstructs these events and their aftermath, showing how they set the stage for the explosion in 1992. An accomplished historian at UCLA, Stevenson explores the lives of each of these three women-Harlins, Du, and Karlin-and their very different worlds in rich detail. Through the three women, she not only reveals the human reality and social repercussions of this triangular collision, she also provides a deep history of immigration, ethnicity, and gender in modern America. Massively researched, deftly written, The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins will reshape our understanding of race, ethnicity, gender, and-above all-justice in modern America.
The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins: Justice, Gender, and the Origins of the LA Riots, by Brenda Stevenson- Amazon Sales Rank: #648266 in Books
- Brand: Oxford University Press
- Published on: 2015-09-01
- Released on: 2015-09-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.10" h x 1.50" w x 9.20" l, 1.66 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 448 pages
Review "Contested Murder makes it clear the tragedy inside the Empire Market and the violence that followed in South L.A. and Koreatown should be remembered by all Angelenos as a turning point in their history." - Los Angeles Times
"A child's murder, a judicial outrage, and a city on fire: Brenda Stevenson unlocks the secret history of the 1992 Los Angeles riots in this meticulously fair but disturbing account of the Latasha Harlins case." --Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz "As an element of the Los Angeles Riots, the shooting of Latasha Harlins finally gets the attention it deserves from renowned historian Brenda Stevenson. Stevenson gives us fascinating and full portraits of each of the three women involved: the teenage African-American victim, the Korean immigrant shooter, and the Jewish American judge. She traces all three lives deep into the past and forward to that fateful moment in the South Central convenience store in March 1991. A gripping read and a revealing perspective on the varied and intersecting lives of American women at century's end." --Ellen Carol DuBois, author of Through Women's Eyes: An American History "Not since J. Anthony Lukas's Common Ground has a book so sympathetically and powerfully traced personal and group histories to recover the roots of an American tragedy. To Lukas's elucidation of race, ethnicity, religion, and class, Stevenson's excavation of the lives of three women-the decedent, the defendant, and the judge-adds a gendered understanding that explains anew the eruption of violence in Los Angeles in the spring of 1992 and the traumas of inequality in the modern United States." --Stephen Aron, Chair, Autry Institute for the Study of the American West "The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins is a deeply moving account of the shooting death of a Black female teenager at the hands of a Korean female shopkeeper. With an elegant and elegiac tone, Stevenson charts the biographies of those involved in the outcome of the case-including the presiding Jewish female judge. Stevenson also plumbs the cultural and historical contexts of race, class, and gender in the lives of the women and men who were brought together by the caprice of history as well as its seemingly inevitable designations. She has encompassed all of our histories in an epic manner and written about an episode in our national history to which we should all pay attention." --Lois W. Banner, University of Southern CaliforniaAbout the Author Brenda Stevenson is Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her books include The Journals of Charlotte Forten Grimke and Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave South, selected as an Outstanding Book by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America.
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Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful. History Making History Again By june green I just purchased and finished reading Professor Brenda Stevenson's book "The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins: Justice, Gender, and the Origins of The LA Riots". I had almost forgotten about the murder of Latasha Harlins until the murder of Trayvon Martin and the Trial of George Zimmerman. I was glued to the television listening and saying to myself, "where have I heard a trial presented like this before" "These words and Zimmerman's lawyer's approach to the case sounded so familiar", but at the moment I could not put my finger on where I had I had hear this type of trial before. Several days after the verdict was announced I received an email alert about Professor Stevenson's book, as soon as I received it in the mail and started reading it, I almost fainted from the realization of how these two case where similar including the verdicts. Professor Stevenson did an excellent job of giving details about what happened on March 16, 1991, Latasha family background, even her own mother had been killed and the individual was given a lessor sentence, but what I found most profound about her book was her ability to present all three women, the Judge who gave Soon Ja Du no jail time, Soon Ja Du family history and background, and Latasha Harlins who the Judge explained that if "Latasha had lived she would tried her for assault"! This book dealt with how females operate in the Justice System, something we don't always get a view of, how privileges, power and "who you know" plays a big part in who get to decide who lives or dies, who stays or goes, or who goes to jail and who does not, and how from a gender perspective this has a impact on how justice is administered. It also made me evaluate how the Zimmerman trial came about and the role women played in the verdict that was rendered. I am sure that People of California vs. Du was the first case on point that Zimmerman's lawyers used and almost word for word! Thank you Professor Stevenson for a well thought out and research book about an almost forgotten young Black female. I recommend this book to anyone who do not know Latasha Harlins story because it is a mirror image of the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman murder and verdict.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. I cannot recommend this book enough By KTBoyd The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins is a full scale investigation of the death, trial, and sociopolitical repercussions of fifteen-year-old, African American Latasha Harlins’ assassination at the hands of Korean shopkeeper, Soon Ja Du. Stevenson pays special attention to the cultural background and influences that not only brought together Harlins, Du, and the Jewish Judge, Joyce Karlin, but uses them to explain why these factors governed their decisions and behavior. In order to do so, she uses census and immigration records, (auto)biographies, and private interviews to tell a broader story of the cultural hardships and social adjustment patterns that each family experienced. Beyond the histories of these women in particular, the author weaves together the histories of the intermediate families, community members, and the political, religious, and legal parties that were involved—heavily compiled from interviews and a diverse array of national and local newspaper articles. Further, Stevenson dissected a complete collection of the trial records to bring the readers back into the courtroom to see the events unfold as they actually occurred, as well as to identify some of the shortcomings in the legal arguments, evidence, and decision-making processes that lead to a lenient sentence for Du—and ultimately the discontent that incited the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Essentially, while Karlin and the defense attorneys argued that race and racism played no part in Du’s actions, Stevenson posits that these concepts had everything to do with how the verdict played out. Ultimately, the unjust verdict assigned for Latasha’s murder aggravated an already marginalized Black community, which led some to find a form of vigilante justice through the rebellion. While Contested Murder is a heavy-hearted and emotionally draining read, it is truly an example of a meticulously researched, objective account of history writing that takes special consideration of gender, race, culture, law, and politics. I cannot recommend this book enough!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A Major Catalyst for the 1992 LA Riots Explained By Lionel S. Taylor This books gives an account of the murder and trial of a Korean shop keeper who shot a teenage girl in the back of the head after an altercation at a convenience store. It is one of the major events that led to the L.A Riots in 1992. The goes into the background of the three main people involved in the story and makes the point of showing that the encounters between these women both in the store on the day of the murder and in the courtroom. No one lives in a vacuum and this books attempts to put their interactions in the larger context of their experiences as women of different social status and racial groups as well as their positions in society. This was both the strongest and the weakest part of the book. I thought that it did help put the judges ruling in the sentencing in context as well as the reactions of the shop keeper. But it did seem to go into some unnecessary detail that was not relevant to the narrative. Overall I think that this is a very good book that is well written and it adds valuable background knowledge and context to the events of the LA Riot.
See all 7 customer reviews... The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins: Justice, Gender, and the Origins of the LA Riots, by Brenda Stevenson
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