In the 27th anniversary of the LA Riots that broke out following the recorded police brutality against Rodney King, his daughter has launched a scholarship in her late father’s honor.
Lora King was only seven-years-old when her father was brutally beaten by a group of officers from the Los Angeles Police Department. The brutal beating was recorded by a bystander who shared the footage with news stations. Once the footage became public, many started to call out the constant police brutality against people of color. The footage went on to spark the infamous L.A. riots of 1992.
27 years later, King’s daughter has launched the “I AM A King” scholarship that helps black fathers by way of covering costs of family events like dinner to even larger activities like an all-expense paid trip to Disneyland. The scholarship falls under the Rodney King Foundation for Social Justice and Human Rights that she launched in 2016.
“As long as I continue to follow my vision, he will always be represented,” King told the LA Times.
Black fathers interested in applying can go to the Rodney King Foundation site where they will submit a picture and a short essay about their plans for the scholarship money. The first awards are expected to be handed out on Father’s Day.
“I want to help build up what was burnt down,” she said.
Rodney King died in 2012 in an accidental drowning. He conducted his final interview just a few weeks before his death on OWN’s Where Are They Know series where he talked about his memoir The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption and what he wanted his legacy to be.
“The world knows me as a person who got beat up by the cops, the real Rodney King is the ‘Can’t we all get along type of guy,'” he said. “I’m a different man than I was 20 years ago. I wouldn’t change anything, because if it didn’t happen to me, it would be a slower process in people getting along.”
