April 4th, 1968, 48 years ago: the day a hero was killed because of what he stood up for, because he said something that challenged the status quo.

Martin Luther King Jr., one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, was assassinated on the day history wept and a whole nation was reborn.

The man could only be described as a legend; he was there when then-president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was only the beginning of a dream, but his life was ended before he could see his entire dream come to life.

As many of us sat around enjoying our day off, we neglected to remember the sacrifice Dr. King made for the people of this country and what his life meant to this nation.

One man was able to represent what equality meant, what freedom meant and just how important they both were.

Unfortunately, though the wretched and immoral signs are gone and the remnants of Jim Crow lie only in pictures and memory banks, it is clear that the dream has still yet to be fully achieved and the fight is far from over.

As Dr. King put it, “This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling of or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy… now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.”

It is troubling, we feel, how appropriate this quote is not only for 1963 but 2017. Only time has changed while mindsets and perceptions remain in tact, cleverly recycled from generation to generation.

We, the staff at The Daily Eastern News, feel that now is not the time to pretend that the social climate in this nation has mysteriously disappeared over night as if we are just hiding it from a hero’s birthday in the name of achievement of a so called dream.

Everywhere we look it is nothing but racial tension, and that in itself is a mere understatement.

All over this nation Americans are pitted against each other all because of stereotypes that produce this alleged fear that a red-faced moron continuously preaches to be true almost as if it has become his doctrine.

48 years ago, and it seems as though nothing has changed. We make claims that a bill has become our salvation and put to rest centuries of segregation, but that is only a piece of paper.

It does not hide the fact that discrimination is still prominent in everyday life, especially if you have a darker complexion.

The editorial staff at The Daily Eastern News feel the need to remind the campus community and the Charleston area of Dr. King’s words and to remind us all to fight to keep the dream alive now more than ever.

“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:” those words still resonate in the minds of many Americans who foster the same dream and have tried their hardest to keep that dream alive.

Yes, we have come a long way, but it is hard to pin point just what shows for that.

48 years ago a man was killed for having a dream. Find your morals, know right from wrong and know the definition of human rights. Only then can we keep the dream alive.