American History - Part 224 - All About the 1990s - LA Riots - Seinfeld - Y2K - Jurassic Park

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION-- American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week in our series, we take a look at life in the United States during the last decade of the 20th century. For most of the 1990s, the nation was at peace. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, bringing an end to years of costly military competition. During the 90s the American economy recovered from a recession and grew strong. Inflation and unemployment were low. There were new developments in medicine and technology. The Internet began to evolve from a defense project mainly linking researchers into a new way for the world to communicate. America grew by almost 33,000,000 people during the 1990s-- the largest increase of any decade in its history. By the end of the 90s more than 280,000,000 people were living in the United States. During the decade of the 90s, there was a large increase in immigration from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. For the 1st time in 70 years, 1 in 10 Americans was born in another country. Divorce rates in the United States had begun to grow sharply in the 1070s. By the 90s those rates were starting to drop. But there were 1,000,000s of children living with only 1 parent, or with their grandparents. Single-parent families are more likely to be poor. In 1980, single-parent households represented about !20% of all households in the United States with children. By 1990 that number had reached 24%, and was continuing to rise. In 1991, a black man named Rodney King led police in Los Angeles on a high-speed chase. After the chase, officers tried to arrest him. "Now, the story that might never have surfaced if someone hadn't picked up his home video camera. We've all seen the pictures of Los Angeles Police officers beating a man they had just pulled over." A man living nearby videotaped officers striking King repeatedly with their sticks and kicking him on the ground. The officers later said King had resisted even after they shocked him with an electric stun gun. The man took the 81-second video to a local television station. Soon people all over the country were watching it. The beating led to criminal charges against 4 white police officers. The trial was moved out of Los Angeles. Their lawyers argued that the officers might not receive a fair trial there. On April 29th, 1992, a mostly white jury in a community north of the city returned its findings. The jury found the officers not guilty of assaulting Rodney King. Anger at the jury's verdict soon led to rioting that began in the largely poor black neighborhoods of South-Central Los Angeles. More than 50 people died in days of violence before police and troops brought the unrest under control. Many more were injured and 100s of buildings were destroyed by fire. It was some of the worst rioting in American history and received worldwide attention. The following year, a federal jury found 2 of the officers who had beaten Rodney King guilty of violating his civil rights. They were sent to prison. Another case in Los Angeles that received international attention also involved a racial element. O.J. Simpson, a black former football star and actor, was charged with murdering his white former wife and a male friend of hers. They were stabbed to death in 1994. Many legal experts believed the case against Simpson was strong. So did many more whites than blacks in public opinion surveys. "The day Mr. Darden asked Mr. Simpson to try on those gloves, and the gloves didn't fit. Remember these words: If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." Simpson's lead defense attorney, Johnnie Cochran. "We, the jury, in the above-entitled action, find the defendant Orenthal James Simpson not guilty of the crime of murder." A mostly black jury found Simpson not guilty. But later, in a civil case brought by the victims' families, a mostly white jury found him responsible for the killings and ordered him to pay damages. As the 90s came to a close, people around the world were preparing to celebrate the arrival of the year 2000. It was a big event. But there were also concerns about the "millennium bug" or "Y2K" issue. This was the worry that older computers might not be able to recognize the calendar change. Lots of activity went into making sure things would go smoothly after midnight on December 31st, 1999. In 2000, Americans elected the 1st President to lead the nation in the new millennium. But the election of George W. Bush resulted in a dispute that divided the nation. That will be our story next week.