MLK: Monday is a day set aside to recognize an American whose nonviolent activism brought about real change in the nation.

Many people today may even be able to recite those famed words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

“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.”

King’s civil rights speech given Aug. 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, was the spark of the movement for equality. It helped create the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ending racial segregation in the United States.

It was the successful pinnacle of the March on Washington.

The themes are timeless.

According to History.com, the legacy of such an important message has been preserved.

“Remembered for its powerful imagery and its repetition of a simple and memorable phrase, King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech has endured as a signature moment of the civil rights struggle, and a crowning achievement of one of the movement’s most famous faces,” the website noted.

“The Library of Congress added the speech to the National Recording Registry in 2002, and the following year the National Park Service dedicated an inscribed marble slab to mark the spot where King stood that day.

“In 2016, Time included the speech as one of its 10 greatest orations in history.”