Changes in the direction and magnitude of adult black suicide rates in large metropolitan centers of the United States are examined in this paper. The data presented are primarily from Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) with 100,000 or more black residents and indicate that (1) the gap between the suicide rates of black males and females has been widening in every region of the country except the West; (2) rates are rising most dramatically in the metropolitan Northeast, and declining most notably in SMSAs of the North Central United States; (3) rates continue to be highest among large industrial centers of the North and West; and (4) rates declined among metropolitan black females in every region of the country and among black males in the West and North Central regions, although they increased for males in the South and Northeast. Finally, it is argued that suicide is best explained by institutional and sociological variables, that is, that the problem of suicide is rooted less in individual behavior than in the character of social institutions, social patterns, and social networks. (Author/GC)