Over the years Off-Ramp was on the air, LA City Archivist Michael Holland researched, wrote, and narrated many pieces for the show that used the city archive to illuminate aspects of the city's history most people have forgotten or don't know in the first place ... like Mayor Fletcher Bowron's active campaign against Japanese-Americans during World War Two. Bowron, who lived from 1887-1968 and was mayor from 1938-1953, used radio to drive his point home, and the transcripts of his speeches aren't pretty.

This time, we'll hear Holland's piece from 2017, and from the same year, George Takei telling us what happened to his family when FDR signed his infamous Executive Order 9066.

Note: "Internment" was, of course, a euphemism, so politicians and others didn't have to say they were putting innocent people in prison. Our policy at KPCC is to call it "incarceration." 

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

(Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.)

(This is the second part of a two-part episode.)

This time, we mark the 30th anniversary of one of the darkest days in LA history: Friday, April 29, 1992, when the all-white Simi Valley jury found 4 LAPD officers not guilty in the beating of Rodney King. Rage, protests, and violence, broke out across the city and lasted for days.

Five years ago on Off-Ramp, we marked the 25th anniversary with a full hour of interviews, archival footage, and an unflinching reckoning of the LAPD and its legacy of violence. We wound up with an interview with the late Rodney King.

That's what we're going to listen back to on this episode, but please remember that a lot has changed in five years, and one of them is that as a newsroom - like a lot of other newsrooms around the country - we at KPCC and LAist no longer use the phrase LA Riots.

While riotis used historically, we cannot ignore the media's role in popularizing a term that is now often used as a dog whistle for race. Words like response, unrest, or uprising encourage our audiences to think deeper about its origins.

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

(Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.)

Joan Baez: Fifty Years of Folk; There's Gold in These Hills!; John Nabs Scam Artist!; Gold Fever; This Great Undemocracy; Meet the "Mayor of Nugget Alley"; Miki Dora, Rebel Surfer; They Animated Us; Drew Street Demolition; Music on Off-Ramp: "There's a Goldmine in the Sky"

We've Been Recognized; StoryCorps Comes to LA; Nathaniel Ayers Update; Control the Cars!; Guitar Hero; A Modest Proposal; Happy Chinese New Year; What's in an Ox?; Remembering Nils Asther; Animal Show or Performance Art?; New Gang Plan for Gangland; Coachella Complaining; Line Drives and Lipstick; Barbershop Quartets descend on Pasadena

The World Was In Color; William Shatner, the Listener; Gustavo Takes the Baton; Brace for Unemployment; Obama Vendors; Millions at the Mall; Korean BBQ Tacos?!; Tracking the Heroin Trade; Making History at the Mall; The Man Behind MoLAA; Song for Night; On the Righteous Path; Watching the L-Word is Code for I'm Gay!; The Obama Quest For A Puppy!

Busted?; Graffiti Artist or Vandal?; Graffiti Removal; Malibu Heroes; Living with your Mother-In-Law; Tuskegee Airmen celebrate Obama; Good-Bye LA; Famed Songwriter Lamont Dozier; Chip Off the Old Block; MOCA Update; Off-Ramp Music Recommendations

Bluesman John Bigham; The Ashes of Oakridge; Counting Crime; Why "Bail Out" a Healthy Bank?; A Christmas Catastrophe; Growing Up Ahmed; A Music Odyssey; Don't Call Them Hell's Angels; David Fincher on Dinner Party Download; The Play's a Thing

Meet Angel Joy Blue; A Tribute to Theme Songs; He's Alive; A Down-to-Earth Angel; Jazzing up the Classics; It's A Good Day to Be a Songwriter in L.A.; Angel Gets her Wings; Mock Me Gently; Queen of Disco in LA

A Christmas Carol Redux

LA Goes Live; Clarence McDonald: Follow My Lead; The Schlepometer, Explained; Living the High Life; 21st Amendment Rights; Hey, Cabbie!; They Built It. Will We Come?; Crunchy or Smooth?; Cafe Tacuba; Coldplay Stole My Song!; He's THE Fox