one of the people who knew him is pat morrison of the "los angeles times," joining us now. good to see you. you describe that it was always very difficult for rodney king to strike some balance with being thrust into this situation that made him a symbol of something so many, particularly in the black community, had been saying for a long time was happening, that police officers were beating black suspects. this time it was caught on videotape and thereby rodney king came to symbolize what was happening for a long time. >> rodney king said he was an unlikely symbol. as big as he was, as broad as his shoulders were, don't know he was capable of bearing that particular burden. i asked him whether it was worth it, this beating caught on videotape that changed so many things about los angeles? he said he was glad ultimately it happened to him because it did make for those changes. his name now is symbolic. a police officer told him once, rodney, your name is going to be known when we've all been dead for 100 years. >> how did he accept that? >> it was a big burden for him. i th

. >> we are joined on the phone now by "los angeles times" columnist pat morrison. pat, thanks for joining us. basically, this was a californian who was clocked by police as speeding. they tried to pull him over. it led to a car chase, topping speeds of over 100 miles an hour. when he was finally stopped, there was a brutal beating, a fight was then tape-recorded by someone who was watching and then led to a year-long tension in los angeles. i wonder if you can put this death and this man's life into perspective as far as history is concerned of race relations. >> i spent a lot of time with rodney king at the end of april, the anniversary of the riots. and here was a collision of an unlikely person with the course of history. it's just kind of a happy-go-lucky ne'er-do-well guy. he had had his own problems with the law already. and the fact that there was a video camera recording this resonated with so many people in the black community who thought this happens all the time, but finally the rest of the world gets to see it. and that was the resonance of the rodney ki

for more on rodney king and his legacy to los angeles and the american culture, we turn to pat morrison, long-time reporter and columnist for the "los angeles times." she met with and profiled rodney king a number of times. and darnell hunt, director of the ralph j. bunche center for african american studies at ucla, who has written on race relations in los angeles. pat, starting with you. you wrote a piece today titled the burden of being rodney king. explain that. how did he see that burden? >> the burden that he did not seek. people wanted in him a martin luther king in a sweater. but here's a flawed man. if he hadn't been flawed he wouldn't have been stopped on that freeway. we wouldn't have seen those 81 seconds of videotape that changed los angeles, that changed the los angeles police department. it was a big burden for him that he carried so many expectations with him. for example, his family only called him glenn king. that's the name they knew him by. rodney king was a different personage for him altogether >> brown: you're saying he was aware of the flaws? he knew that he had