SOT: I have a dream today.
Martin Luther King Jr. died 50 years ago.
We know the familiar refrain from his speech delivered 55 years ago in Washington D.C.
Did his dream of racial equality come true?
There’s definitely been progress for some.
Unfortunately for many others, the dream remains just that -- a dream
So what would King be fighting for today?
55 years have passed. Black people are still disproportionately behind bars and the subject of police brutality.
If current trends continue, one in three black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during his lifetime.
Michael Brown, 18, shot dead during an altercation with a cop. Unarmed.
Laquan McDonald, 17, was shot 16 times while walking in the middle of a Chicago street. He was carrying a knife.
Tamir Rice, 12, shot dead by police responding to a call of a juvenile waving a gun inside a Cleveland park. He was holding a toy pellet gun.
SOT: We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
When it comes to jobs, for many African Americans, things have actually got worse.
In 1954, black people were just under twice as likely to be unemployed compared to white people. Now African Americans are more than twice as likely to not have a job.
Twenty-two percent of the US’ black population lives in poverty, while the rate of whites is less than 9%.
Police shootings of black men regularly make national and international headlines.
1,129 people have been shot and killed by police in 2017. Twenty-seven percent of the victims were black, despite blacks being just 13 percent
His famous speech was delivered on a March for Jobs and Freedom.
of the population. Of those who were unarmed and not attacking but were still killed by police, 35 percent were black.
Experts at a United Nations Human Rights Council in 2016 warned about "impunity for state violence" in the US, which has created a "human rights crisis" that "must be addressed as a matter of urgency.”
A lot has happened in the 50 years since Martin Luther King Jr died but his famous words seem as relevant today as when he first uttered them.
SOT: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!