STROUDSBURG, Pa. — "I have a dream"- The famous first four words from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech at the March on Washington in 1963 still echo in the minds of many, including Christa Caceres, president of the Monroe County NAACP.
After 60 years, she says "The Dream" is still being worked on.
"His dream was pitch perfect. His dream instructed us and gave us all marching orders. Some of us just got to catch up," Caceres said.
Dr. King made that speech 60 years ago Monday, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
250,000 people attended from across the country, calling for equality and freedom.
Caceres says it became one of the defining moments of the Civil Rights Movement and one of the most iconic speeches in American history.
"He was able to weave in these beautiful parts of our country with the hard truths," Caceres said. "Really calling on America to look at themselves in the mirror and say, 'am I really doing all I can to make this country what we say we are' and I think that really the beauty that I take. That's the impact that he made upon me."
Caceres believes as a country, we have made some progress.
The 1963 March helped the passage of the Federal Civil Rights Act in 1964 and Voting Rights legislation in 1965.
But, even all these years later, she says there is more work to do.
"I take it back to education and amending curriculum to allow for the contributions of Americans, black Americans, and also places where we've fallen short," Caceres said. "These things have to be addressed. They have to be acknowledged; otherwise, we're doing ourselves a disservice by not being completely honest about where we were, but look at where we are. We can't say look at where we are without saying this is where we've come from.">
Caceres believes Dr. King's dream will fade if people don't continue to work towards it today, tomorrow, and moving forward.
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