HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — This weekend, people across the country will honor the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Today, the civil rights leader would've turned ninety-two.
Meanwhile, the country still has a long way to go with racial and health disparities, all during a global pandemic. It's two things Dr. King was opposed to. Some people have called it a "twin pandemic".
Our WZDX News reporter spoke with local leaders to see if they believe his dream is still alive.
"I think Dr. King thought we would've been further along towards his dream than we are," says Alabama State Conference NAACP President, Benard Simelton.
"I think the desire to attain the dream is still alive. I think that portions of his dream may have been realized to a certain extent, just for the simple fact of things are desegregated," says United Women of Color Huntsville, Executive Director, Angela Curry.
Curry says more examples include our first Black male President Barack Obama, and soon to be Black female Vice President, Kamala Harris.
However, Curry says this is an exception compared to what the average persons of color experience day to day. "As far as the apparel, and how we present ourselves. Those things really matter because of how we are judged. Because of how we look," she says.
Simelton says there's another setback, the Capitol riot. "We saw the Confederate flag being marched through the Capitol of the United States of America. A defeated symbol but yet and still it was marched through the nation's Capitol," he says.
Curry says it takes consistent conversations about race relations in our communities which goes from the bottom to the top.
"I think as leaders in our cities, and in our counties, and in our states - the elected officials who we look to for leadership need to step up and make that a priority. I really believe that. And people will follow if they do that," she says.
"He didn't put a time frame on it. He said he will overcome, and "I have a dream that one day," says Simelton.