A year after southern California's catastrophic Watts Riots in August 1965, LIFE magazine revisited the scene of the devastation through remarkable color pictures by photographer Bill Ray.

By Daniel Miller. The five-year period after the Watts riots of 1965 was the most crucial stretch of Big Willie Robinson’s entire life. This was when he met the love of his life, got the car of ...

Summer is to riots as autumn is to financial meltdowns. On this day in 1965, the Watts section of Los Angeles convulsed with one of most damaging riots in American history.

For some Angelenos, the 20th anniversary of the L.A. Riots brings to mind another traumatic event, from an even earlier time: The Watts Riots of 1965.

The woman who would become Watts' most vocal activist was there when the riots broke out in 1965. "We walked down to 103rd Street, and blood was running down the stream like water," she said.