The O.J. Verdict
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special video - getting beyond 'the o.j. thing'

Anne Dunn, assistant executive director for the Los Angeles City Commission on the Status of Women.

Lela Ward-Oliver, city editor of the Los Angeles Sentinel, an African American newspaper.

Veronica Hendrix, columnist for the Los Angeles Sentinel and a producer for the local television program "L.A. Woman."

Karen Earl, executive director of the Jenesee Center, the oldest domestic violence intervention program in South Los Angeles.

Victoria Pipkin-Lane, director and chief administrative officer of the Los Angeles County workplace programs.

Pamela Wilson, host and producer of "The Road to Passion."

Part One  HIGH LOW

"O.J. Simpson sits wherever he sits today because of Johnnie"
A 9:45 clip in which they talk about the verdict, "buying justice," and why the trial in the end was all about race.

Part Two  HIGH LOW

"O.J.'s redemption was about us as a community"
A 10 minute clip in which they talk about the domestic violence issue, Marcia Clark and how she set back liberated women, and 10 years later, what has changed.

As producer Ofra Bikel explains in her interview with FRONTLINE, it was when she produced the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill story back in 1992 that she first realized black women don't necessarily agree with white women and black feminists don't necessarily agree with white feminists. White feminists looked at Anita Hill and asked, "How could she not speak out against Clarence Thomas?" Black women looked at Anita Hill and said, "How could she do this -- to a brother?"

So Bikel wanted to know what smart, professional, middle-class African American women, who are involved in their Los Angeles community, think about the O.J. trial 10 years later. She discovered they were very torn at the time -- between the victory of the black community and the failure of the domestic violence issue to play with the jury and public -- and they had some definite opinions about Marcia Clark and O.J. Simpson. The conversation took place in April 2005.

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posted oct. 4, 2005

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