The repressive power of a government to quell rebellious activity is a central variable in all social science theories of rebellion. Several previous studies of the 1960s black riots have tried to incorporate the repressive-power construct into city-level explanations of riot activity. This...

This article develops the hypothesis that the underlying processes generating the 1960s black rioting differed by time frame. More specifically, the idea is developed that local situations of blacks mattered least during the rioting explosion immediately following the assassination of Martin...