Week of Remembering the Riots Begins : Anniversary: Events include a televised forum and honors for those who aided truck driver Reginald O. Denny. Singer Michael Jackson kicks off charity effort.

Los Angeles began a contemplative countdown Monday to the first anniversary of last year’s devastating riots by honoring the rescuers of truck driver Reginald O. Denny and holding a televised multiracial town hall meeting at a prominent African-American church.

The events, among a series of commemorative happenings this week, cast a somber look at the destruction and divisiveness that erupted April 29 after the verdicts in the state trial of four Los Angeles police officers charged in the beating of Rodney G. King.

“We should never forget,” exhorted Titus Murphy, among those honored in Watts for rescuing Denny from attackers at Florence and Normandie avenues on the first day of the unrest. “We should never go back to the norm, because then it’s bound to happen again.”

Discussions centered on themes that have permeated public debate in Los Angeles since smoke filled the skies last spring: lack of jobs in the inner city, escalating racial tension, pervasive crime, declining schools and a nagging sense of hopelessness among many residents.

“This is a continuing battle,” said Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown at the community forum televised from First African Methodist Episcopal Church. “The problem started probably almost 30 years ago, about the time of the Watts riots. There hasn’t been adequate response on the part of the federal government, state government, local and county governments and the private sector to these problems.”

Christopher Brown, a 28-year-old former gang member from South-Central Los Angeles, complained at the same session that his community remains “red-lined” by many companies, making it difficult for would-be entrepreneurs such as himself to turn their lives around.

“The children are looking up to people like me,” Brown said. “What they see us do is what they’re mimicking . . . on the streets. In order for them to have something positive to strive for, you’ve got to give my age bracket--from 19 to 35--something to do (to be) successful in life.”

The remembrances citywide also sought to look beyond the anger and frustration prevalent in much of the city by focusing on the emotional and physical rebuilding of Los Angeles.

Singer Michael Jackson visited several social agencies in South-Central to demonstrate his support for inner-city programs, while students at UCLA debated the lessons of the uprising during the first of a weeklong series of seminars.

Rebuild L.A., which has been criticized for doing too little since the civil unrest, distributed 10 vans to youth organizations, which will have use of them for a year. The organization plans to distribute 50 more vehicles, and 41 cars have been lent by General Motors to community groups.

“We are all going to do this job together,” said Rebuild L.A. spokesman Bernard Kinsey at First AME Church. “This is a big ‘we’ we’ve got. We want to have more people with a shovel in the hole.”

Jackson popped into the heart of South-Central for a barrage of surprise visits to agencies that receive money from the pop icon’s newest charity for youths. Heal L.A., a $1.3-million effort, provides drug prevention, immunization and mentor programs to thousands of inner-city children most deeply stricken by the riots.

Amid the din of screaming children and the howls of fans, Jackson kissed babies and shook hands in the children’s wing of the Watts Health Foundation. He also visited children in two after-school programs.

Chuck Hirsch, executive director of Heal the World Foundation, parent organization of Heal L.A., said Jackson was thrilled by the response. “He was just so elated to be with the children,” Hirsch said.

At the after-school program at El Santo Nino, 12-year-old Ebony Martin was among 50 children who entertained Jackson, clapping and chanting: “Heal L.A., Heal L.A., Change tomorrow everyday.”

“I think it was good he came to support the children who don’t have a lot of things in their life,” said Ebony, adding with a smile: “But I wish he would have danced for us.”

Los Angeles police and the city attorney’s office recognized the four men and women who came to Denny’s rescue during a ceremony at Estelle Van Meter Community Center in Watts. They also paid tribute to other crime victims and those who helped them, including Ethel Davis, grandmother of Gregory Davis, 15, killed by a bullet at Vermont and Vernon avenues on the first day of the riots; Fidel Lopez, who was pulled out of his car and attacked by rioters, and Jeffrey Kramer, a reporter who was shot near 53rd Street and Normandie while on assignment for the Boston Globe.

“It should be a powerful lesson for all of us,” said City Atty. James K. Hahn. “They are examples of what all of us should be and can be if we really try.”

Lei Yuille, among those who helped Denny, described the recognition as “an honor” but expressed disappointment that little has been done to address the anger and frustration that sparked riots.

“There’s still not a lot of equal opportunity,” she said.

At the evening church forum, mayoral candidates Michael Woo and Richard Riordan also expressed frustration at the state of affairs in the city, and each pledged to make things better if elected.

Woo described Los Angeles as a “city of strangers” that is “in danger of being torn apart,” while Riordan said many concerns across the city boil down to the same issue: “People don’t feel safe.”

Anniversary events continue today, including the reopening of a Smart & Final warehouse on La Cienega Boulevard that burned in the riots and the release of a report on rebuilding the city by the Labor/Community Strategy Center.