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.

Four years later, post-riot mandates helped him get a job as a Safeway truck driver. “I was the token black for 23 1/2 years,” he said. Some of the employees didn’t want to work with a Negro.

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.

A year after the riots in Watts, Life magazine devoted 26 pages to the beleaguered neighborhood. Photographer Bill Ray and a reporter spent two months meeting residents, capturing park rallies ...

Editor’s note: This story originally ran on Aug. 11, 2005. Jim McKay stopped to think as he raced down the aisle of a steamy, pitch-black appliance store, others around him grabbing merchandi… ...

Tim Watkins, president of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee, talks about the lingering effects of the 1965 unrest on the South-Central area of Los Angeles. Watkins' father founded the ...

An image from the Watts riots in 1965. Barbara Arnwine, who lived through those riots, says watching the events in Ferguson, Mo., feels like “a time warp.” (CSU Archives/Everett Collection) ...