Fifty years ago, President John F. Kennedy went on national television and spoke to the nation about a problem “as old as the scriptures.” He told his fellow citizens that our nation could never truly be free until all of the people that made up the nation were in fact free. It was the introduction of civil rights legislation not seen in the United States since the 14th and 15th amendments were enacted 100 years prior. The landmark legislation, essentially ending legalized segregation, was passed by Congress the following year.
At the ceremony, standing beside President Johnson, was Martin Luther King Jr. For it was Martin Luther King Jr. that led a movement in which its demand was something intrinsic to American democracy. That simple yet often times far reaching ideal that all men are created equal. It was a movement for which much blood was shed and which cost Dr. King his very life.
Fifty years from that moment, we have an African American man as President of the United States, something that would have been thought impossible during the early 1960s. But the question is this; Has Martin Luther King’s dream been fully realized?
I will not attempt to answer that question but only ask that as we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. this coming Monday that we stop and ponder the question. And remember, the dream of of Dr. King was for social and economic justice for all people. Have we in Dr. Kings words “reached the mountain top” or have we a long journey yet ahead of us?
Shawn M. Morse 
It would do everyone well to listen to the last few speaches that Dr. King gave before he was murdered. They all were populous in nature, calling for an end to poverty, calling for an end to the vietnam war, calling for a greater equality for all people. He spoke out against a system that impoverishes people and then exploits them for the benefit of the wealthy. He spoke of the corrupt nature of the war machine, and how Vietnamese people were humans with families who were being ground up by our military industrial complex.
It was then that the heat was turned up on Dr. King. Then that James Earl Ray was promised $10,000 to carry out the assasination. Most americans don’t realize that a civil court found the Government and the FBI culpible for that promise. Don’t realize that a note written by Ray was found by Jailers stating “I got a murder charge instead of 10,000 for listening to promises. No more fool pants.” Before his trial. Americans would be well served reading the trial transcripts of the Civil trial about the King assasination. http://politicalassassinations.com/2012/08/complete-transcript-of-the-martin-luther-king-jr-assassination-conspiracy-trial/
Dr. King was a great man because he gave up his life fighting against oppression of all kinds. He stood up for the people of color, he stood up for the poor, he stood up for those destroyed by war and the broken and those without a voice. He gave his life for all of us who care about justice.
I only wish I could be more like him.