- it's a beautiful thing. like, number one in the whole country, that's a major accomplishment. - there was a lot of people experiencing success visibly. - the most prestigious award for literature has gone today to the american novelist toni morrison, the nobel prize. - i think i'm the first african- american to win the nobel prize. - you are. - and that is astonishing. - suddenly, people who we looked to as heroes and as markers of dignity and grace and talent and success, suddenly, america was looking at them too. this represents a new understanding of diversity, a new understanding of american possibility. - everybody wanted to be like us. everybody wanted to talk like us. everybody wanted to see our movies. they wanted to listen to our music. they wanted to wear our clothes. and some people felt like we lost that war, that revolution in the early '60s and the '70s, but we won the war in pop culture in the '90s. - every city has cases of police brutality, but few are as brutal as the alleged attack against haitian immigrant abner louima. - nearly 2,000 demonstrators