Watts Tower (Watts neighborhood, Los Angeles)

Now: “We taught the rest of the nation how to revolt,” says Tim Watkins, president and CEO of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee. “And now it’s upon us to teach the rest of the nation and the world how to use unity as the glue that holds us together and take the tools of cooperation and build that better future.”

Since the year of those riots, the Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC) has been working with community members and local residents to improve quality of life in that section of L.A.

On its Web site, the group says it tries to accomplish that larger goal by holding “the hands of people in need by providing a place to sleep, food to eat, money to earn and love to grow.” The WLCAC points to several victories that include bringing the first credit union and the first major bank to the neighborhood.

Photo: Watts Tower in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts, where riots broke out in August 1965.