Affirmative action, school integration, black economic status, the Reagan administration’s attack on civil rights, and the exercise of black political power: these are some of the matters that now concern the civil rights community. Together, they may suggest a picture of meaningless Brownian movement. Some think that years ago issues were crisper, progress was achieved more readily. In fact, however, civil rights issues always have been difficult and complex. Indeed, it might be argued that today they converge so that legal and political questions bear a comprehensible relationship to one another. We may, as a result, be on the verge of critical black political involvement.