Large-Scale Urban Riots and Residential Segregation: A Case Study of the 1960s U.S. Riots.

Spatial Sciences Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90089 USA

Riots -- Psychosocial Factors ; Black Persons -- Psychosocial Factors ; Stereotyping ; Racism -- Psychosocial Factors ; Residence Characteristics

Racism -- Trends; Black Persons -- History; History; Socioeconomic Factors; United States; Black Persons -- Statistics and Numerical Data; Urban Population; Racism -- History; Riots -- History; Urban Areas; Urban Areas -- History

Despite a well-established literature investigating race-related predictors of riot incidence, the racial aftermath of riots remains unexamined. In this study, I use the 1960s U.S. race riots to investigate trends in black residential segregation levels following large-scale riot activity in seven major U.S. cities. I use a novel approach--namely, synthetic control matching--to select a group of cities against which segregation trends can be compared. I find that levels of black segregation rose in 1970 for four of the seven cities, but these increases disappeared in 1980 and 1990 except in Detroit. These results mask differential trends at lower geographic levels: suburban neighborhoods in affected areas experienced larger and longer-term increases in segregation, particularly in traditionally hypersegregated cities in the Midwest and Northeast.

Biomedical; Continental Europe; Europe; Public Health

0070-3370

PMID: NLM26940025 NLM UID: 0226703

20170113

20200625

10.1007/s13524-016-0459-9

114149311