On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot from his motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. Now that it has been 50 years since his assassination, we should take a look at how close we've come to the future that he envisioned and the cause that he died for.

First and foremost, we must celebrate the victories and growth that has been made due to the effort and passion of remarkable people in history. The fact that there is a significantly greater amount of Black Americans in Congress, Hollywood and universities are feats to be proud of. Gaps are narrowing as more Black people are graduating high school, attending college and making their way to the middle and upper class. However that being said, racist undertones and discrimination is still very evident today.

Racism didn’t cease to exist when slavery ended. It didn’t go away the minute segregation was made illegal or when Blacks were given equal voting rights. Equality wasn’t achieved once black voter turnout was equivalent to white voters or when we had our first black president.

While these are all steps in the right direction, it cannot make centuries-old practices and mindsets go away. As laws are being created to break down discriminatory acts and effort is being made to dissolve racist mindsets, racism itself does not go away, it simply evolves.

In reality, there is still so much that has yet to be accomplished. Here are a few facts that reveal the divide between the black and white community both socially and economically.

- African American men are six times more likely to get incarcerated than white men and three times more likely to get killed by police.

-Nearly 40% of Black Americans are poor enough to be dependent on government aid (more than any other racial group) and their unemployment rates are twice as large as White Americans,

-For every $100 in income earned by a white household, black families are making on average $57.30.

-42% of Black children are educated in high-poverty schools, compared to only 6% of White children.

I am not saying this to undermine five centuries of progress, I am simply trying to make known the obstacles and microagressions that are afflicted on black people every day. It's important to realize that equality has not yet been achieved and that it will take conscious effort from every member of society to break down the embedded prejudices.

With every "additional screening" a person of color must undergo at the airport, every time they get prematurely pulled over by a police officer, every look of suspicion they receive from workers as they enter a store, Black people are constantly reminded of their race.

Yes, America has made progress in these 50 years, but lets not forget how much more that has to be resolved and accomplished. While the United States today is not the oppressed America that Martin Luther King Jr. knew, I believe that if he was alive today, he would still be advocating for equality and still be striving towards a dream of a better future.