Hello and welcome to This Day, a history show from Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, May 17, 1980. Riots and violence begin in Miami's black neighborhoods of

Overtown and Liberty City. They would last for about three days,

resulting in at least 18 deaths. And look, when we've talked about racial uprising and riots

and rebellions on this podcast, we've talked a lot about the late 1960s, you know, that long,

hot summer of 1967. And of course, we've talked about the Rodney King rebellion in the early 90s,

but right in between that, the late 60s in the early 90s, but right in between

that, the late 60s, the early 90s, there are these Miami incidents, which were the deadliest

urban riots in a single city throughout all of the 70s and 80s, but perhaps a little less

remembered than those other incidents. And it all started because of the death of a man named Arthur McDuffie after an encounter

with the police and then the acquittal a few months later of the police officers involved

in his death.

Sound familiar, folks.

Here to discuss, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter-Jackson

of Wellesley.

Hello there.

Hello, Jody.

Hey there.

So every time we discuss a moment like this, and we did this, especially during our episode on Rodney King, our multiple episodes on Rodney King, you know, we use language like riot, but also rebellion, uprising, violence.

And I know both in academic circles, but then I think in important just sort of larger

cultural ways, that kind of language matters.

So you want to start there and, you know, we'll just, yeah, we'll just be upfront about

...