Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

American cities have been centers of social and political ferment since they first emerged in the seventeenth century. With greater regularity than is commonly known, they have been the site of a wide range of disturbances that have been variously referred to as riots, civil disorders, mob actions, insurrections, and uprisings. Indeed, depending on how one defines any given disturbance of the peace – be it a genuine uprising against the established authority, a mob action directed at a particular individual or group of people, or a rowdy group of sports fans venting their joy or frustration – the list could be practically limitless. However, in the twentieth century, and especially during the half-century following the end of World War II, a particular manifestation of unrest known as an urban rebellion became one of the most common – and certainly the best known – examples of civil disorder in the history of the United States.Customarily, these disturbances are referred to as simply riots or race riots. Yet neither of these terms is quite accurately descriptive. Riot is overly broad, and race riot is misleading, especially since the term has often been used to describe racially motivated mob attacks by one group (often whites) on another group (often blacks). In the latter instance, this term would best describe the unrest in Chicago in 1919, or in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921 when, ... log in or subscribe to read full text