Almost 52 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at age 39. His fight for civil rights and liberty equally applied had already made history.

A half-century later, the country is a very different place and mostly for the better. While it would be naive to believe that the United States has achieved some colorblind utopia, younger people don’t remember a time when open racism was the norm. Government-mandated segregation is now looked upon as a dark stain on America’s character and a great evil that still haunts many communities.