There is a gap between the dream and the reality. (U.S. Embassy New Delhi, Creative Commons)

Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. changed the nature of the dream.

America's growing love for materialism and elitist ideologies were shattered by King’s desire to see a new, brighter and non-racially charged society. His "I Have a Dream" speech is one of the most quoted, recognizable and honored in our nation’s history. King himself has become not only one of Americas most respected heroes, but his passion for change has also been felt around the world. Fifty years after King’s famous speech, the question isn't whether or not King’s legacy should be celebrated; the question is how his life has been honored through the strategic implementation of government policies and human rights legislation that help guide the nation toward a strengthened economy and equality for all citizens.

In examining America's ability to de-segregate school zones and provide increasingly supportive environments for its youth, America has failed. In 2013, at the Republican National Convention, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: “We need to give parents greater choice – particularly poor parents, whose kids – most often minorities – are trapped in failing neighborhood schools. This is the civil rights struggle of our day.” She went on to emphasize that the zip code into which Americans are born determines the standard of their education and thus potentially their lives’ outcomes. In inner city communities across the nation, millions of citizens live below the poverty line without adequate resources to propel either themselves or their families forward. As many families enter into over six generations of college graduates, minorities across the nation dream to become the first in their family to attempt to enter college, a dream that is growing increasingly difficult to realize without funding from outside sources. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said:

“There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we now have the resources to get rid of it. The time has come for an all-out world war against poverty…The well off and the secure have too often become indifferent and oblivious to the poverty and deprivation in their midst. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for ‘the least of these.’”

Yet, education isn't the only part of King’s Dream on which America has fallen short. King also focused on building stronger economic opportunities for minorities and America’s poor. The current economic crisis in America is the direct result of mismanaged spending by the government and corporate sectors, yet the number of Americans currently in danger of losing their homes and lives to poverty continues to rise. are predominately minorities in America. According to the Huffington Post, in 2013 the poverty level will reach its highest since the 1960s. The widening income gap in America signals the result of the economic missteps of the past 20 years: increasing economic inequality. Now, 15 percent of Americans – over 46 million – live in poverty. (Compare this to poverty rates in Cameroon, Madagascar, Rwanda, Uganda, Ecuador.) Yet, both the Obama administration and Congress have yet to agree on a solid plan to solve the problem of poverty.

Present generations’ response (or lack thereof) to Martin Luther King’s advocacy of non-violence is arguably one of America’s most unfortunate faults. Despite King’s famous remark that “a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” violence in America increases. Multiple domestic acts of terrorism followed 9/11. Several shootings occurred in 2012 alone, at the Empire State Building, the Aurora Movie Theatre, and the Sandy Hook school. Collectively, these shootings took over fifty lives, many of them children. Moreover, between 1980 and 2005, police forces engaged in over 9,500 police shootings – one police-involved shooting per day. One out of 84 of those shootings were found to be unjustified.

Unfortunately, the effects of lack of education, rise in poverty and widespread violence in American cities has also lead to an increase in the number of prisoners in America’s steadily growing prisons. The “War on Drugs” and on crime have become wars on the lives of minorities. Currently, there are over six million Americans in jail, many of whom cannot post bail or hire adequate legal representation, and are instead forced to watch as those who can are released and at times receive lesser sentences than their minority counterparts.

Although it seems that America’s record indicates a bleak future, influential leaders and movements arose to eradicate past injustices and to bring change to America. The Occupy Movement’s push for economic equality, the Obama administration’s push for human rights, states’ push for new legislation for things like Oregon’s police gun control and Chicago’s Ceasefire program, and numerous non-profit organizations’ push to help the underprivileged across the nation, have helped move society forward. Each of the above help to develop programs to further assist in bridging the educational divide, among other things. Yet, the push for change 50 years later still seems to lack conviction.

What has truly changed since the 1950s? Only small, albeit significant improvements have been made, and today, equality still does not exist and the need for emerging leaders is greater than ever. Even as America celebrates the second term of its first black president, Barack Obama, the desire for change doesn't match reality. In multiple interviews, members of the Republican Party, representatives in the House and experts from the university continue to emphasize that balancing the budget is more important than promoting inner city gun control, education reform and poverty alleviation. For the years ahead, the main goal is thus to drive our leaders to drive Martin Luther King’s dream to action.

Martin Luther King will forever be one of, if not the most significant figure of the civil rights movement, but if we as a nation do not band together to cultivate our own movement for human rights, educational opportunities and economic equality, where will we be 50 years from now? It is no longer the responsibility of Martin Luther King's dream to propel us forward. His dream merely served as a message for the world to wake up. His work jn the past needs our attention in the present and in the future; otherwise, history will repeat itself until America truly learns from its horrific mistakes of its past.

Reach Contributor Jacqueline Jackson here; follow her here.