Three decades ago, Los Angeles erupted in some of the worst urban violence America had ever seen. People were infuriated that the LAPD officers who were caught on camera beating Rodney King would not be punished. It was a fuse that lit a powder keg, which still has resounding effects to this day.

Days after the violence started, John Hope Bryant, a young entrepreneur, decided that it wasn’t enough to give speeches or make statements in front of news cameras. He got to work mobilizing the public and private sector to create opportunities that had not existed before in that community. The result was Operation HOPE. Now based in Atlanta, the organization has procured $2 billion in investments to support its mission of financial literacy and empowerment. He sat down with BET.com for a retrospective look at the events of 1992 and why groups like his are still needed today.


BET.com: It hardly seems like three decades have passed since that day, and a lot of people will say Los Angeles has never been the same. But are they right? Is the spirit still there?

John Hope Bryant: The spirit is actually stronger because we made a bet on ourselves in the community and the bet paid off.  But for those involved in the fight in 1992, and in the 30 years since, we made a bet inspired by Mayor Tom Bradley and [organizations like] rebuild LA, Operation HOPE, the First AME Church, FAME Renaissance and West Anglia Church of God and Christ, and so many heroes and sheroes of this partnership between government, community and the private sector. The bet was that no one tears up their own stuff, no one burns their own home.

By giving people an ownership mentality, we made a bet that would change the tone and texture of the community and help us make the revitalization sustainable. The retail complexes that were built are bustling. The office buildings that were built are filled. The gas stations that were built have a customer base, and are creating jobs. The loans that were given to people to become homeowners performed…which proves we’re a good investment. We're just an untapped asset base and, in many cases, we don’t even recognize our own value proposition.

BET.com: We’ve talked before about what happened in 1992, and media outlets tend to focus on Rodney King, the racial tensions or the $1 billion in damage. But you’ve been there, boots on the ground. What do you think we should be focusing on?

Bryant: I'm focusing on the little old lady who just wants to refinance the mortgage on our home. I'm focusing on the young entrepreneur who might be the next Steve Jobs, or Bob Johnson. Or whoever the hero or shero is…who is probably sitting in one of the school classrooms and just not getting the time and attention.

The buildings burning, an unjust arrest  that led to an unjust verdict–– those are the narratives that are known to everybody and they're dramatic and they're TV friendly, so they're there, that's what gets broadcast.

It’s much less sexy to make smart sexy. It’s much less sexy to educate a child in the local school and to do that at scale. It's much less sexy to go block-to-block and to pull the data and find that these are 500 credit score neighborhoods that have high levels of crime, murder, mayhem, drugs, single parent households, etc. How do you flip that to a 600 credit score, a 650 credit score or a 700 credit score neighborhood? And we both know that 700 credit score neighbors don’t go rioting.

What we've done is help to give people something different to see which is the promise of individuality of becoming a real estate professional, becoming a banker, a business person, a community leader, an architect or an engineer. I mean, this stuff's not sexy, but it is sustainable.

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BET.com: Some of the same economic challenges still exist in L.A. today. Do you feel like it's the same things causing the same problems?

Bryant: The problems of disinvestment, and lack of understanding of our value in our neighborhoods have always been the same. The only time we were really valued is when we were taking advantage of, which was slavery. It's interesting to me that these communities we call “inner cities,” in a country like France, the inner city is Paris. In the U.K. the inner city is London and in Switzerland, it’s Geneva. Only in America do we look at inner cities as somehow bad.

New York has Harlem, which is nothing more than Upper Manhattan. You couldn't give Atlanta away 25 years ago. In Anacostia [Washington D.C.]., which is really waterfront property, and now you’ve got FEMA headquarters there. African Americans have been really pushed out of that community. We didn't give them the opportunity to come up, we just asked them to leave. My fear is that in inner cities across this country, we will not get the memo. We're walking away from these communities and others are not investing in them, because they see them as poor neighborhoods. When they do invest, what you see is a check casher, payday loan lender, next to a rent-to-own store, next to a title lender, next to a liquor store, next to a pawn shop, and then a church down the street trying to make you feel a little bit better.

In that regard, nothing’s changed because you don't have financial literacy, you don't have financial coaching, you don't have access to capital at scale, nor do you have the capitalist system at work in these urban neighborhoods. They're just hollowed out, in many cases.

In South Central LA, and other places where we operate, you have these little pockets of hope that you can point to where the economy is working, people have got jobs, people have gotten contracts, the opportunity. But overall, we're still a long way from the promised land.

BET.com: Since the riot happened, a whole generation has been born, grown up and become adults. Do you think they have an understanding of what happened?

Bryant: I think the answer to that is probably no. But that's no different than somebody thinking about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and only remembering the “I Have a Dream” speech. Or someone trying to understand Nelson Mandela, but only know that he was once the president of South Africa, not knowing that he was actually a prisoner for 27 years.

The story here is the travel and the transition of what's happened over the last 30 years. But probably the image in people's minds is that Rodney King was a Black man beaten by police officers and then rioting happened after that, which is a narrative that has replayed itself over and over again, most recently with George Floyd. My fear is that the real message here of investment, revitalization, recovery, and stability will get lost along with the hard work organizations like ours and others have done over 30 years.

BET.com: Your organization, Operation: HOPE has come a long way since then. Now it's a nationally recognized organization. What are some of the some of the things you’re up to these days?

Bryant: The 1 Million Black Businesses initiative.  There was a lot of investment made $52 billion from the private sector, after George Floyd’s murder.cSome of that money flowed to organizations like ours. and we got $130 million from Shopify to create a million new Black businesses over 10 years. That started about a year and a half ago, and we’ve made incredible progress with that. That's creating e-commerce businesses, websites, and fulfillment systems and delivery systems for people to get online and take advantage of this technology-induced business boom.

We have a Financial Literacy For All movement that is now co chaired by me and Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, to embed financial literacy into the heart of business, government and community.

We have 190 HOPE Inside locations in 40 Plus states, that are raising credit scores 54 points in six months, 120 points in 24 months. We've directed $4 billion in capital for homeownership and small business ownership to underserved neighborhoods, including South Central L.A., since we were founded May 5, 1992. Four million clients of Operation: HOPE, and it goes on and on. All that started with a dream that started on a bus in the backdrop of the Rodney King riots in 1992.

That was hope-less-ness. Now we’re returning to South Central L.A. with his daughter Ms. (Lora Dene) King to underscore hope-ful-ness and to fulfill the cycle where only rainbows follow storms.