Fifty years ago last week, a quarter of a million people descended on Washington D.C. to demand freedom and jobs. The occasion is best remembered for the Rev. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, a stirring declaration on behalf of —and a demand for —equality among the races. One short yet simple passage —"I have a dream this afternoon that my four little children will not come up in the same young days that I came up within, but they will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not the color of their skin" —has captivated generations and provided a benchmark for all societies ever since.

The march pushed politicians to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, legislation introduced in the summer of 1963, but not passed until a year later and signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. The law outlawed discrimination against racial, ethnic and religious minorities as well as women, and banned voting-registration practices that discriminated against, and effectively disenfranchised, those minorities.

There is no mistaking the progress that has been made in the United States in the half century since Dr. King spoke those words. The Voting Rights Act put an end to the most egregious abuses of the political process to suppress minority participation in American elections. Segregation is no longer legal. The United States now has a black president. There have been significant economic advances as well. In the 1960s, more than half the black population lived in poverty; now a majority is no longer poor. A half century ago, less than 5 percent of blacks graduated from university; in 2010, 38 percent were enrolled in universities or colleges.