Lynette Holloway at Columbia Links

Lynette Holloway, a former New York Times reporter, is the midwest bureau chief of The Root, co-managing editor of Diversity MBA Magazine, a contributor to Uptown and Xinhua News Agency, China's largest news service. She also serves as a mentor for Columbia Links spring journalism program. She is working on a book project about one of today's most popular female hip-hop artists and training to run the Chicago marathon in the fall.

Los Angeles Riots: Then and Now

Rodney King, Then

By Lynette Holloway

He became an international icon after Los Angeles police officers savagely beat him in 1991 with metal batons following a high-speed chase. It was all captured on video by a nearby resident, and the footage transfixed a nation when it was aired over the nightly news. Nearly 13 months later, on April 29, 1992, the city erupted in anger when four white officers were acquitted of the beating. Rioters stormed fiery streets. More than 50 people died, scores were hospitalized and hundreds of businesses and homes were destroyed during the unrest, which lasted three days. King, who had been drinking when he fled police, became known for his haunting plea to end the violence: "Can we all just get along?"

Rodney King, Now

King, 47, is the author of a new book with Lawrence J. Spagnola, The Riot Within: My Journey From Rebellion to Redemption. He was a cast member of VH1's second season of Celebrity Rehab, a popular TV show hosted by Dr. Drew Pinsky, and he tried his hand as a record company executive as head of the now-defunct Al-Ta-Pazz Records.

Go to The Root for the complete slide show!

How Sam Jackson Became His Own Genre

By Lynette Holloway

Samuel L. Jackson, 63, says longevity is the secret to how he became the highest-grossing actor of all time. He has appeared in more than 100 films since 1972, and moviegoers would have a hard time finding him in the role of a virtuous man, according to the New York Times.
The New York Times reports:
Before “The Mountaintop” opened on Broadway last fall, there were rumors that this fictional account of Martin Luther King Jr.’s last night before his assassination would present him as a flawed man, one who drinks and flirts with a motel maid. Kenny Leon, the director, told me recently, however, that he never would have had anything to do with something “that destroyed the iconic nature of Dr. King.” In fact, he said, when he first read the play, he realized that its innocently childlike King could be played only by “a sensitive actor bigger than life” — his friend Sam Jackson.
Samuel L. Jackson, who is 63, has appeared in more than 100 films since 1972, and moviegoers would be hard-pressed to find in any of his roles someone who was innocently childlike. For the first part of his film career, his characters tended to appear in scripts as Gang Member, Drug Addict, Hold-Up Man. Even after his work in “Jungle Fever” earned Jackson a best supporting actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991 (an honor created for that performance) and his work as Jules Winnfield in “Pulp Fiction” three years later made him world-famous, at 46, Jackson’s roles, no matter how fleshed-out or nuanced, have been far from innocent…