Between 1964 and 1971, hundreds of riots erupted in American cities, resulting in large numbers
of injuries, deaths, and arrests, as well as in considerable property damage concentrated in
predominantly black neighborhoods. There have been few studies of an econometric nature that
examine the impact of the riots on the economic status of African Americans, or on the cities in
which the riots took. We present two complementary empirical analyses. The first uses aggregate,
city-level data on income, employment, unemployment, and the area's racial composition from the
published volumes of the federal censuses. We estimate the "riot effect" by both ordinary least
squares and two-stage least squares. The second uses individual-level census data from the
Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. The findings suggest that the riots had negative effects on
blacks' income and employment that were economically significant and that may have been larger
in the long run (1960-1980) than in the short run (1960-1970). We view these findings as suggestive
rather than definitive for two reasons. First, the data are not detailed enough to identify the precise
mechanisms at work. Second, the wave of riots may have had negative spillover effects to cities that
did not experience severe riots; if so, we would tend to underestimate the riots' overall effect.