Message of Unity in Time of Rebuilding : Riot aftermath: Red’s Liquor Store reopens with a mural of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Residents say owner Yeun Ho Park understands them.

The looted goods have been replaced, the bullet holes have been covered, and the burned-out front has been repaired and freshly painted.

Red’s Liquor Store on Main Street and Century Boulevard no longer bears any physical scars of the violence that forced it to close during the civil unrest.

But the walls of the Korean-owned store now carry a message of a different sort: covered with the images of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., they reflect what the owner said is his desire to work for change with those in his neighborhood.

“We have to find a solution together without any violence,” said Yeun Ho Park, who has owned the store with his wife, Mi Ja, for six years. “We have to go to the White House and ask, ‘Why? Why did they give up on this area?’ ”

A fire set during the riots’ first night left Red’s partially burned, with about $180,000 worth of damage to the building and its contents, Park said.

That night, Park was forced to barricade himself in a back storage room after several men forced their way into the building. With the help of a black employee, who drove Park to his home in a suburb north of downtown Los Angeles, he was able to escape without injury.

But Park said he harbors no ill feelings against those who burned his store or the crowd of people who looted it the next day. Determined to reopen, he borrowed money to repair the damage while waiting for his insurance company to process his claim. Six weeks after it was nearly demolished, the store reopened.

“It’s a very close neighborhood,” Park said. “They wanted us to open.”

Park, who immigrated from Korea 22 years ago, said he understands the anger that led to the violence against his store. Over the years he has watched the number of jobs and the amount of federal assistance decrease, and he has seen the impact on the area.

“It’s getting worse for poor people,” said Park, sitting on a crate in a back office at his store. “I agree with the riot. They had to do it. The government gave up on this area. That’s not right.”

That kind of understanding, say some in the neighborhood, shows that Park is more than “just a merchant.” Even before the violence, they say, he had made efforts to become involved in the community.

“He tries to meet the community halfway,” said Christopher Barker, a neighborhood resident who works at the store.

When the church across the street holds a social or a Thanksgiving giveaway for the needy, Park helps supply the food. When he catches a youngster stealing, “I counsel them. I advise them,” Park said. “Or I talk to their parents.”

And in an area where unemployment is rampant, Red’s employs three African-Americans and two Latinos. All except one worked at the store before the riots.

“Red’s Liquor Store has demonstrated a true spirit of brotherhood in this community,” reads a letter in Park’s office, from the pastor of the Christian Hope Missionary Baptist Church across the street. Park, it said, is “a true friend.”

He keeps a gun behind the counter to guard against robberies, but he never considered using it to fend off the looters. “I gave everything,” Park said. “I said: ‘Take it.’ ”

Given the goodwill, Park and his employees believe that it was not neighborhood residents who set the store afire. An employee who was standing outside the market when the violence started did not recognize any of the individuals involved, and neighbors rallied to douse the flames.

Before the unrest, there had been no shootings at Red’s, and since the store has reopened, its profile has improved, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Ted Maillet.

“It looks cleaner now than it has in years,” Maillet said. “I was surprised at how fast it got rebuilt.”

The rebirth of Red’s surprised many in the neighborhood.

The store sits on Century Boulevard across the street from a boarded up gas station and the charred remains of Pete’s Burgers, both victims of the unrest. Few of the damaged businesses in the area have reopened.

But Red’s now has a fresh coat of paint and metal bars on the windows. A sign that reads “Red’s Mini-Market,” covers the door, below the older “Red’s Liquor,” which survived the fire.

The most obvious addition is the painting of King and Malcolm X.

Park’s 17-year-old son Daniel, persuaded his father to have Malcolm X in the painting, so that the “most famous two black revolutionary” leaders would be included.

“His views on racism and the problem with minorities in the United States appeal to me,” Daniel said of Malcolm X. “He might be black and his efforts were for black people, (but) all minorities can look up to him.”

The elder Park chose King because of his nonviolent approach.

“Personally, I respect him,” he said. Next to the portraits is the phrase, “We Shall Overcome,” added at the suggestion of a neighbor, a 94-year-old member of the Christian Hope Missionary Baptist Church.

A quote from Malcolm X, which includes the word “brotherhood,” is painted in red and blue, symbolic of once-rival gang members who have declared a truce.

For Richard Dawson, an African-American artist who designed and painted the mural, the selection of these historical figures could not have been more perfect, especially for the area’s youth who revere Malcolm X.

Through the images, Dawson hoped to help Park articulate his “answer back” to the community after the riots. “It’s saying: ‘I believe in black equality,’ ” the artist said. “It says: ‘I understand you better.’ ”

Four years ago, Dawson, who lives in the neighborhood, approached the Park family and offered to do sign work for the store. The family agreed and since then, he has been the store’s sign painter.

The Malcolm X-King mural is a first for the store--its last painting was of palm trees--but one that Dawson hopes will help to improve relations and prevent graffiti. “It’s too respectful for them to write on,” Dawson said.

Given the controversy surrounding the large number of liquor stores in South Los Angeles, and other divisions between the area’s Korean merchants and African-American residents, the Parks have no illusion that a painting alone will correct the problems.

“Realistically, I think they might think that we’re just trying to get on their good side,” Daniel said.

But the teen-ager, who studied Malcolm X in school, said he hoped that measures such as the mural will “let them know how hard we’re trying . . . to relate to them.”

“A lot of Korean families are trying.”