As the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington was celebrated on Wednesday, I found myself feeling two different ways.I was in admiration of how far America as a country had come in terms of civil rights and how much we had become a more open-minded nation. A feeling of honor and pride overcame me when I realized that African-Americans in the past along with many other groups of people were responsible for the way blacks are being treated in this present day.On Aug. 28, 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. accomplished something that not many people, especially of color, could have done during that time; King grabbed the attention of the masses by delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.Now to fully comprehend King’s speech and understand his point of view, our current society would have to rewind back to the 1960s. Approximately 50 years ago, African-Americans did not possess their basic rights. Yes, they had been “freed” from slavery, but that was not the end of black people’s struggles. African-Americans still needed to be freed emotionally, physically and mentally from the torture of discrimination, racism and segregation. There was no such thing as equality and justice for people of color. Their basic rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness did not completely exist.Many individuals risked their lives to fight for the civil rights movement, each for different reasons, but the one individual I feel helped most in paving the way for myself and other people of color by reaching beyond all barriers of color was King.As an African-American in today’s society, I feel as if I would not possess the basic rights I uphold now if it weren’t for people like King. He and other individuals like Rosa Parks and Malcolm X fought endlessly to make sure black people, like myself, would live in a better world where we were treated with respect and given the same rights as a white person. In his “I Have a Dream” speech, King discussed what he envisioned the future to be and I remember that as a young girl one line always stuck with me:“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.”I never fully understood what King meant by that as a child because I didn’t see black and white. I could tell we were not all the same, but I saw everyone in society as being equal. It was not until I got older that I realized the impact of skin color and how so many people had to fight so hard to be judged not by their skin, but by the person they were and the things they did.I have King to thank for allowing me to realize there is more to me than the color of my skin. My life is not defined by being a person of color, but by the dreams and goals I have as well as the person I am. During my 19 years on this planet, I have never been told by someone that I could not do something or achieve a goal because I am black.King gave many African Americans the opportunity to create their own destinies. His speech helped inspire the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which gave African Americans the chance to live and participate in society without restrictions.I believe King would be happy to see how far African Americans have come since the 1960s. There are some things, however, that I believe would upset him: the popular rap music played with its derogatory lyrics, number of black-on-black crime and the amount of black males in jail. I think it would truly hurt him to see black people using the term n-word to casually refer to their family and friends, and cops still targeting young black males on the street.President Obama took the time to touch surface on a couple of issues while attending the tribute to the March on Washington where he spoke about continuing the effort that began on that August day.One quote Obama said speaks perfectly to our generation at the tribute to the March on Washington:”We can continue down our current path in which the gears of this great democracy grind to a halt and our children accept a life of lower expectations… Or we can have the courage to change,” said Obama, according to CBSNEWS. “The March on Washington teaches us that we are not trapped by the mistakes of history.”Years from now, our generation will be in charge of this nation. We will make important decisions for our country. We have the power to continue making progress in America in terms of accepting people for who they are no matter their race, gender or sexuality. We must continue the work of the past civil rights leaders; we must set an example for the future generations to come.