The incident attracted a large crowd fueled by simmering racial tensions punctuated by high unemployment, poverty, and police brutality. Those tensions exploded on that August night.

Six days of fires, clashes with police and violence followed that traffic stop. Thirty-four people died, more than 1,000 were injured and scores of buildings were damaged, looted or destroyed – causing an estimated $40 million in damage.

Religious leaders gathered at 116th and Avalon in remembrance of the events of 50 years ago, praying that the city never re-lives the type of violence of the Watts riots.

Los Angeles author and political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson said conditions in Watts and South Los Angeles are similar – if not worse – today than they were in 1965. Hutchinson, who recalled the violence and the chaos of the riots, pointed to increased levels of joblessness, poverty and police tensions in the area.

23 of those who died in the riots were killed by Los Angeles police officers or National Guardsmen. Nearly all of the injuries and deaths were civilians.

The Watts disturbance was the deadliest in the history of the city until the uprising and riots that followed the 1992 acquittal of the police officers who beat Rodney King. In that uprising, 55 people died and 10,000 businesses were destroyed by fire.

Groups such as the Youth Justice Coalition will hold teach-ins on the benefits of community policing and the need to address and solve the root causes of economic inequality and poverty.

On Saturday, the all-day “Watts Revolt: 50 Years Later Symposium” will be hosted by Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Human Relations Commission at Charles Drew University in Willowbrook. That same day, Grant AME Church will hold a commemorative church service at 9:30 am, with a community fair and block party planned at noon.