ABSTRACT
The United States has a long history of civil disturbances related to race. The nation has experienced a small number of large-scale urban riots since 1971, such as Miami in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1992, but there has been no repeat of the riots of the 1960s. The Kerner Commission blamed the riots on racial discrimination in employment, education, welfare, and housing. The commission advocated a broad social program to open up employment and educational opportunity, expand welfare, and break down patterns of segregation in housing. Racial discrimination existed in every urban area to some extent, but although riots were numerous, only a few were major incidents. Collins and Margo have investigated the effects on the labor market and the housing market. The peak years for civil disturbances were 1967 and 1968, two and three years after the Great Society programs had been enacted.
