In photos: The Watts Uprising 60 years ago

This week is the 60th anniversary of a shocking uprising in the Watts area of Los Angeles, which foretold similar unrest in cities throughout the 1960s and 1970s over poverty, police abuse and discrimination. Six days of unrest in August 1965 resulted in 34 deaths, over 1,000 injuries, nearly 4,000 arrests and the destruction of property valued at $40 million in the predominantly Black neighborhood. Through the lens: Here are some images from that tense week that captivated the nation and prompted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to call for more focus on economic inequality. \People carry clothing and packages from stores in the Watts area of Los Angeles amid looting, rioting and burning in an August 1965 uprising. Photo: Bettmann/Contributor via Getty Images An overturned car and a street littered with debris mark the scene of riots that raged through the night in the Watts district of Los Angeles. Photo: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Protestors on the burned-out streets of the Watts District. Photo: Keystone/Getty Images A suspect is being searched by two armed police during the Watts Uprising. Photo: Harry Benson/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Armed police stand by as suspected rioters lie face down in the street during the Watts Uprising, August 1965. Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images Armed National Guardsmen march toward smoke on the horizon during the street fires of the Watts Uprising. Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images A makeshift sign urging drivers to 'Turn Left Or Get Shot' during the riots in the Watts area. Photo: Keystone/Getty Images With his .22 hunting rifle on his lap and a revolver in his belt, heavyweight boxer Amos Lincoln, aka Big Train, guards the family drug store during rioting in the Watts area. Photo: Daily Express/Archive Photos/Getty Images Silhouetted by the cool gush of a broken fire hydrant, a National Guardsman stands ready for further trouble in the strife-torn Watts district. Photo: Bettmann/Contributor via Getty Images National guardsmen in a jeep patrol a rubble-strewn street in the Watts neighborhood after a several-day-long riot. Photo: PhotoQuest/Getty Images Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. addresses a group of Watts district residents on August 18, 1965, and tells them he is "here to support you because you supported me in the South." King spoke only a few blocks from the worst damage left after nearly a week of rampages. Photo: Bettmann/Contributor via Getty Images A lobby card for Wattstax featuring Jesse Jackson, 1973, eight years later, to draw attention to rebuilding Watts and uplifting Black Americans. Photo: LMPC via Getty Images

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