Today marks the 50th anniversary of one the great speeches in American history. On August 28, 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King stood on the steps of Washington's Lincoln Memorial, before an estimated crowd of 250,000 marchers and wove a lyrical speech into the tapestry of our time.

It was an iconic moment. The image of the day is instantly recognizable. The day, the speech and the man marked for many Americans the moment the great issue of civil rights came into focus. It was for me as I watched the speech on the small black and white television of my uncles home in a small town along the Mississippi River in Missouri.

Dr. King's speech that day spoke to the hope of justice for black Americans. Those were the days of segregation. Blacks lived separate lives from white Americans. Separate seats on the public busses and denial of service in restaurants, hotels and other public places were still quite common. Where I grew up blacks had one day of the week to use the public swimming pool. The rest of the week it was for whites. That seems like another world to us today. A black man is President of the United States today. Black men and women have served in Congress and as governors and mayors all over the nation. Housing, jobs and education have opened up to people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds. Progress has been slow but the curve has been upwards.

The words Dr. King spoke that day transcend the racial issues of that, or any other day and place. His dream of freedom, equality and justice is the same dream of any race or ethnicity at most any point in time. For a black person in the American south of 1963 it was important. For an Armenian in Turkey in 1920 equality was important. For a Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994 justice was important. For a Syrian child in the town of Moadamiyet al-Sham last week where chemical gas was released freedom from fear was very important.

I have often thought that Martin Luther King delivered more than a civil rights speech that day. Dr. King stood like a Biblical judge in the days of ancient Israel and delivered a direct message that indicted a generation for its inattention to the need to live up to the idea that “all men are created equal”. His was not a popular message but it was a correct message that spoke profound truth. That is why the speech lives on and continues to inspire and motivate every time it is read.

The speech was delivered on the steps of the memorial to Abraham Lincoln, the American president who understood the issue of equality. Together, the speech and the legacy of emancipation should turn our thoughts to the hope expressed by the prophet Amos, “But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24).

God speed the day when this verse comes true for all men everywhere.