nded, The Nobel award recognizes the amazing discipline of the Negro. Though we have had riots, the bloodshed we would have known without the discipline of nonviolence would have been frightening (Washington 108). Here, King recognizes, understands, and admits that the potential of black rage is immense -- frightening.Black Rage in Contemporary AmericaAs the transition from the Civil Rights Era to the era of Affirmative Action takes effect in America, members of white society again boasts that they have successfully dealt with the Negro problem. Brown vs. the Board of Education proclaimed an end to Plessys Jim Crow. President Kennedy called in the National Guard. President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Yes, blacks have finally been granted their rightful human place in white society. They are finally free. They are finally equal.But are they? Ellis Cose writes in his 1993 book, The Rage of a Privileged Class, Why, a full generation after the most celebrated civil rights battles were fought and won, are Americans still struggling with basic issues of racial fairness (1)? Black men and women in todays United States clearly understand and agree that a state of equality has not yet been achieved. White concessions have been made along the way, making America better for blacks than ever before; but there is still a long way to go. The battle surrounding affirmative action, the imprisonment of a highly disproportionate number of blacks , the economic plight of the inner cities , the continued misrepresentation of blacks in Congress, all point to the fact that, yes, a work remains to be done to ensure equality.But, thankfully, today the rage is gone. Blacks have finally learned to live peacefully, without regret, in white America. But then how does one explain the inner self-destruction of the race through crime, drugs, and murder? Many in America can only hope that the rage of the Civil Rights Movement will never reappe...
