When earlier this year AP photographer Jae Hong returned to Los Angeles from Japan, where he had been covering the run-up to the Tokyo Olympics, he set out to do a story on Asian Americans and identity amid the pandemic. Asians have an important history in Los Angeles, including in traditionally Black neighborhoods in South LA.
In the middle of that reporting, George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis and protests sprang up nationwide, including LA. But while violence broke out in various parts of the city, there were no violent protests in Watts, the neighborhood in South Los Angeles that has been the site of notorious race riots. That dynamic piqued Jae's curiosity.
Soaked in water, Shapaula Moody, 29, center, laughs with her neighbors while cooling off at her son’s birthday party at the Nickerson Gardens housing project in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, June 10, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Demonstrators push against a police car in the Los Angeles area of Watts, Aug. 12, 1965. Watts has long been associated with the 1965 uprising that led to burned-down buildings and bloodshed. But when 2020 protests against racial injustice in 2020 devolved into vandalism and looting, Watts did not experience violent protest.
AP PHOTO / FILES
Benjamin Jackson III, 10, walks past a mural depicting George Floyd in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, June 9, 2020. There were no fires this time in Watts. There was no looting, no shooting, no National Guard troops patrolling the streets. When protesters around the country began demanding racial justice over the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, there may have been mentions of Watts and faint echoes of the riots that broke out in the LA neighborhood 55 years ago. But they didn’t happen in Watts.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Volunteer Kevin Hunt stands against a wall bearing the names of tenants who died while living in the Nickerson Gardens housing project, in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, June 10, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
James Posey III, 14, tosses a neighbor’s child in the air while playing in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, June 15, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Emmett Palmer, right, sprays sunscreen on Iron Grim, 6, as tenants gather for a birthday party at the Nickerson Gardens housing project in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, June 10, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Laundry hangs on a clothesline outside an apartment building at the Jordan Downs housing project in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, June 15, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Donny Joubert, left, vice president of Watts Gang Task Force, puts on a mask while waiting for volunteers to arrive before a community event as he is joined by Kevin Hunt, foreground, and Hank Henderson at the Nickerson Gardens housing project in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, June 10, 2020. Joubert remembers the chaos of 1965 through the eyes of a 5-year-old. Smoke filled the air, adults wept in front of a black and white TV to images of their community burning, widespread looting and National Guard deployment. Joubert thought his little plastic army soldiers had come to life.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Lavarn Young, 81, reads her bible in the living room of her home as framed photos of herself, far left, and relatives adorn a wall, in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, July 14, 2020. Young, who moved to Watts from Texas in 1946, said she’s seen a lot of positive change since the 1965 uprising. But she said gangs had made the neighborhood more dangerous than it was a half century ago.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Holding an infrared thermometer, usher Frank Scott prays during a Sunday service at Tree of Life Missionary Baptist Church in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, June 21, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Noel Mata walks past a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe made by his parents in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, Aug. 3, 2020. Watts has changed demographically from a nearly all-Black neighborhood in the ’60s to one that’s now majority Latino. But it remains a poor neighborhood with high unemployment.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Pews sit in the parking lot of a church temporally closed due to the coronavirus pandemic in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, June 17, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
A man walks into a grocery store in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, June 30, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
A large inflatable slide stands between apartment buildings at the Jordan Downs housing project in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, June 9, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Think Watts Foundation’s Sheldon Lewis, facing camera, hugs volunteer Tanya Dorsey after attending a community event held to give free food to tenants living in the Nickerson Gardens housing project in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, June 10, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
Edwin Talavera carries a ball as he heads home after playing soccer with his sister, Samantha, right, in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, June 11, 2020.
AP Photo / Jae C. Hong
He shifted his focus to Watts, spending months getting to know residents, including some who remembered the 1965 race riots that erupted after a white police officer stopped a Black motorist. Reporter Brian Melley and video journalist Aron Ranen teamed with Hong as his reporting accelerated.
They found that many residents feel their neighborhood has never recovered from the riots, and still faces myriad problems 55 years later. According to one resident: “It was almost an act of punishment when they burned down the grocery store,” because a lot of stores never returned.
Through words, photos, video and archival images, the package connected Watts of 1965 to Watts of today, giving readers an intimate look at the neighborhood and its challenges at a time when racial justice and police violence are central issues in America.
U.S. managing editor Noreen Gillespie had this to say about it: “The Watts story is great – it makes beautiful use of the archive material and Jae’s photos just sing and let the reader into the neighborhood in a really personal way.”