Charlie Dr. Mae Knight has gone toe-to-toe with American racism, and lived to tell about it. Throughout her 74 years, she has collaborated with nearly every high-profile leader in the Black community, including Coretta Scott King, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Nikki Giovani, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou. And while age has limited the physical capacity necessary to fuel the fiery and confrontational activism which made her infamous, it has not clouded her awareness of social injustice. Dr. Knight is still preaching, even if her audience has all but disappeared. "The mistreatment continues," she says. "They don't wear hoods and burn crosses no more, but there are other ways to hang folk." Racism has persisted in American society, she says, albeit in a more subtle form. When asked why the momentum generated by the civil rights movement-- in which she played a direct role-- didn't ultimately lead to the end of racial prejudice, Dr. Knight blames a familiar foe: the media. "It would be impossible to have a Martin Luther King nowadays, because if you stand up for issues that aren't popular, you determine your fate-- you're killed in the press." She speaks from first hand experience. Her long and distinguished career as an educator and administrator ended in controversy, if not disgrace, against a backdrop of well-publicized allegations of misconduct while serving as superintendent the of East Palo Alto Unified School District. It was a sour ending to a career that saw her become the first African American woman named as Secretary of the California Department of Education. "Our leaders today have to be close to the center," she says. "You can't be called a 'radical' anymore. That term, that word, has become so negative now, it's like a death sentence for your cause. The moment that the media calls you a radical, no one will support your ideas." The Civil Rights Movement, she says, only gained credibility after the media shined a national spotlight on the brutality of police efforts to control peaceful demonstrators in Birmingham, Ala. Today's media, by contrast, keeps the American public distracted instead of informed. Lead by a media hyper-focused on trivial issues, most Americans are lost somewhere between ignorance and complacency. Dr. Knight, clearly confronting some degree of helplessness, fears that Black America may never fully recover from the centuries of overt racism that taints this nation's history. "There are issues today that are just as devastating as Jim Crow and segregation," she says. "In economics, education-- we are losing those battles right now, and we are suffering. We will continue to suffer until our leaders are not afraid to take a stand." Even at 74, Dr. Charlie Mae Knight is still standing.