Even with a black man closer than ever before to becoming the nation's first African American president, the answer clearly is no. We're getting there. But gauging the distance left to travel depends on your personal perspective.

King was just 39 when he was murdered on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 4, 1968. He had traveled there to support striking black sanitation workers fighting for better working conditions.

King's life was cut short before he could know how far his work would take America. The dream he spoke of suggested he was optimistic, even if he suspected the mission would have to be finished by others.

The world is much different from when King was organizing marches and boycotts to end segregation in bathrooms and classrooms, demanding voting rights for African Americans.

Blacks today can be found in lead roles at every level of government and business. Educational opportunities abound at colleges and universities. There is a strong black middle class that continues to grow.

Yet statistic after statistic - from poverty levels to academic achievement to death rates to incarceration - show African Americans are far from equal.

The racial and cultural divide between races continues to segregate America's schools, churches and neighborhoods.

Sen. Barack Obama has done well getting white votes in the Democratic primaries, proving more Americans are following King's plea to judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

Conventional wisdom, though, says Obama won't win Southern states in a general election.

Racism, far diminished, isn't dead. So the promised land prophesied by King remains a dream. But so, too, was this nation once but a dream.

Hard work makes dreams come true. And King's dream has never been so close to becoming reality.

The work remaining goes far beyond organizing marches and boycotts. The work remaining requires changes in the human heart that can take place only person to person.

Except people don't like to get personal when it comes to race.

Blacks who may agree that more personal responsibility is needed to overcome pathologies in their communities don't like to talk about that with whites.

Whites who know their buddies will keep telling racist jokes, no matter how much harder African Americans work, don't want to talk about that around blacks.

So, as tributes, speeches and marches are conducted today to reflect on King's life and remember the dream, do this:

Ask yourself the question posed by King in his 1967 book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? Make the answer personal. What can you do to help fulfill the dream?

On King's birthday, Americans volunteer community service. On this day, maybe they can commit to talk to each other about race.

Editorial: Excerpts from King's April 3, 1968, 'Mountaintop' speech

Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, "If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will be happy."

Now that's a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. . . . But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.

. . . We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying - we are saying that we are God's children. And that we are God's children, we don't have to live like we are forced to live. . . .

Now we're going to march again, and we've got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be - and force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God's children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. . . .

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. . . .

I left Atlanta this morning . . . And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.

And I don't mind.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!

And so I'm happy, tonight.

I'm not worried about anything.

I'm not fearing any man!

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!