1992 Los Angeles Rodney King Riots Remembered 20 Years Later

Henry Keith Watson remembers April 29, 1992, as if it happened just last week. History won't allow him to forget it.

It was a day that marked the beginning of one of the deadliest, most destructive race riots in the nation's history, and one in which Watson's spur-of-the-moment decision to take part made him one of the enduring faces of the violence.

He was at home that day like thousands of others when he heard the news that was racing across Los Angeles: A jury with no black members had acquitted four police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, a black man stopped for speeding nearly 14 months before.

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