Fifty years ago today, on Aug. 28, 1963, Washington D.C. saw one of the biggest protests in the history of the country. That day is often remembered as the boiling point of the demand for racial equality that had been brewing in this country. Many great speakers addressed the crowd that day, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with his now historic “I Have a Dream” speech, calling for an end to segregation, prejudiced voting laws, and numerous other grievances.

Although public school history classes would like people to believe that the country suddenly snapped to its senses 50 years ago, the country must acknowledge that a change in beliefs and culture is a slow process. Outside of the televised progressive world, there is still much prejudice in this country against all different ethnicities and sexualities.

Not even laws change very rapidly. Although the United States Supreme Court had made it unenforceable, Alabama did not remove it’s constitutional ban on interracial marriage until Nov. 2000. Amendments to remove it were voted down in the state legislature as recently as 1998.

Right now, many state governments including Texas, fight over the right to implement new voting laws without federal government approval. States claim to have outgrown the need for federal oversight, but Americans can never be too careful.

Just as many brave men and women who participated in that momentous day are still alive today, so are the people who they marched against. A story of an American society accepting of segregation and violent discrimination is not one belonging to figures to be learned about in textbooks, but one of parents and grandparents.

Most students here at St. Edward’s are children of the late ’80s and ’90s, a time of political correctness and multi-ethnic sitcoms, but it is important to remember that they are not as far-removed from that black and white footage as they tend to think. It is easy to fall into complacency, and even to become annoyed at calls for justice that many believe to have already been answered.

This summer, the Supreme Court helped to take another small step toward equality by striking down the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal ban on gay marriage. While a few states have taken this opportunity to move forward in their recognition of the rights of their citizens, many men and women are still denied lawful union with their loved ones.

For more than 50 years, many Americans have risen to the challenge and made great strides towards a more understanding and blended country. However, equality and civil rights are not solved issues. The injustices of the previous generation are not yet a faded scar, but instead a healing wound that must continue to be looked after.