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Show lhe Salt Lake Tribune NATION Sunday, August 24, 200.’ | Americansreflect on the progress ofKing’s hope More to do: There have been advances towardracial equality, but many say muchis still left to be done By DeBorAH Kona The Associated Press Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech 40 years ago — on Aug.28, 1963.It was a year when segregated restaurants and drinking fountains were still common in much of the South, when Birmingham, Ala., police set attack dogs and highpressure fire hoses on nonviolent protesters and when Gov. George Wallace tried to block black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama. In August, about250,000 people participated in a “march on Washington for jobs and freedom.” King was the last speaker that hot summer day, but his words transfixed the crowd: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaningofits creed: ‘We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created King “was, I think, promoting colorblindness. Color should not be the barometer by which we judge a person’s merit or how we assess them. “Proposition 54 is saying the same thing. It is saying the government should not be involved in assessing an individual’s merit. It should not even be taking into account what a person’s color is. And it’s really saying that color does not have the significance, the importance that we now attachtoit. It really puts our ideal into practice by makingit public policy.” @Eric Taylor, 41, Los Angeles County Superior Court judge: “Tl experienced racism growing up like everyone else. Just because King made the speech didn’t mean that all the problems that he was addressing were resolved. “You experiencein day-to-day life, issues, challenges, that are really race-based, or based on things other than the content of your character. “You simply havetoface those issues and keep in mind the thrust of what King wastrying to relay back in those days.” @Charies Ogletree, Harvard Law School professor and cochairman of the Reparations Coordinating Committee, which is seeking reparations for descendants of African slaves: “Regrettably, although many of us have overcomethebarriers of prejudice and discrimination, there are scores more who still suffer from... lack of education, poverty, lack of housing, poor health care anda criminal justice system that focuses more on punishment than rehabilitation. “It’s important to see that now we have more than 40 African-Americans in Congress. Wehave an administration that has the first African-American secretaryof state and national se curity adviser. We have African Americans running companies like American Express, Fannie Mae, AOL Time Warner and Merrill Lynch.” @ Russell Simmons, co-founder of Def Jam record label and chairman and CEO of Rush Communications: “We're talking about a country where every single store in the mall represents the same image .. Gap and Banana Republic and Abercrombie and Polo and Tommy and everyinstitution is white male, every institution. Do you think the whole world is white male? “There’s a lot of opportunity, tremendous optimism among someyoung people. Andthis next generationis the best one ever.” Associated Pre The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledges the crowdin front of the Lincoln Memorial for his “1! Have a Dream" speech in Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. Thursday is the 40th anniversary of the speech. equal,’ ” he said in one of the most often quoted passages from his address on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. “| have a dream that my four little children will one daylive in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” King’s speech endures four decades later because it gave Americans a vision of a nation free of racial discrimination. It has cometo be regarded as a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement an articulation of the values and qualities Americansaspire to. To mark the speech’s 40th anniversary, The Associated Press asked a range of people for their opinions about what kind of progress the nation has made or failed to make in fulfilling King’s words. Here are some of their thoughts: @ Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, attended the march as communications director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: “African-Americans and racial minorities are better off in many respects in 2008 than was truein 1963. Having said that, remember that for Martin Luther King, this was a dream, and it remains an unrealized dream today. “There are still enormous disparities between blacks and whites in education, income, life expectancy. Thelist just goes on and on andon. And so while gaps between blacks and whites have narrowed, most of them havenotclosed.” CSeye 4TTHE REI NN @ Raul Yzaguirre, president of National Council of La Raza, a majorLatinocivil rights group: “We've done a verygoodjobin terms of tearing down thelegal structure of Jim Crow and the sort of the government sanctioned discrimination that was blatant in the ’60s. What we haven't doneis, what is left to do, is to erase racismoutof the hearts of men and womenin the United States. It’s still real, it’s still there. “Certainly our culture, in music and in acting, lots of those barriers have comedown. Latino music, Latino culture, Latino fla vors are as American as applepie. “The problems we’refacing in the 2ist century, both African Americans and Latinos, have to do with economic issues. There are much more subtle challenges thanthe simplechallengeof being able to get waited on at the lunch counter in the ’60s.” @ Pete Seeger, folk singer: “Tm optimistic about my country. I feel that what Dr. King taught the whole country ... is going to be carried around the world. That is, to make big changes youdon’t grab a gun and try and shoot your wayinto these changes “T’m nowso enthusiastic about King that mylast song was about Dr. King, the world learning from Dr. King. I said, ‘We sang about Alabama 1955, but since Sept. 11, many wonder, will this world survive? But if the world learns the lessons from Dr. King, we can sur vive, we can, wewill! And so we sing, don't sayit can’t be done, the battle’s just begun. / Take it from Dr. King, youtoocan learntosing, so dropthe gun.’ ” © Ward Connerty, Universityof California regent and spokesman for Proposition 54, which would prevent the state from asking the race or national origin of anyone in collecting data about public education, contracting and em ployment. California voters will consider the measureOct. 7 30” SAVE UP TO Looking for an excuse to get out there and celebrate the end of summer? We've got thousands of ideas andthey'reall on sale. Take advantage of savings of upto ae 30% during the REI Labor Day Sale, August 22nd to September 1st. 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