Nation: All the Long, Hot Summers

Burn, baby, burn!" That was the exultant cry first heard in the Los Angeles district of Watts. It marked a historic shift from the era of sit-ins and nonviolent marches, of songs and prayers, to the era of ghetto rioting. The worst outbreaks: New York City, July 1964. At a rally held in Harlem to protest the killing of a black youth by a white off-duty police officer, black leaders denounced the police and called for community action. When the crowd marched to a Harlem police station, scuffles with police erupted into a...