In 1992, an all white jury acquitted 4 white police officers after they brutally beat Rodney King, a black man, as he lay prone on the ground. The United States was sitting on a racial tinderbox. Fueled by enormous inequality between whites and people of color, it erupted. L.A. burned. 55 people died, 2300 were injured, and 13,000 were arrested, mostly Black and Latino. Smaller riots ensued around the country. Since the uprisings, we have approximately doubled our prison population. 70% of those in prison are people of color, the majority of whom are in for non-violent drug offenses. Have we addressed racial inequality in this country, or have we simply hidden the reality of racism behind bars?

Angela Davis
Angela Davis is one of the iconic figures of this era. She was acquitted of conspiracy charges in 1972 after one of the most famous trials in U.S. history. She went on to become an internationally regarded scholar and writer. She is the author of many books, including "Women, Culture and Politics" and "Blues Legacies and Black Feminism." Her latest is, "Abolition Democracy." Governor Ronald Reagan of California vowed when he fired her from her position at UCLA that she would never again teach in the state system. Today, she is a tenured professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz.