In November of 2008, I was invited to Chicago to watch the election returns at Grant Park and be there with Barack Obama as he became the first African American ever elected U.S. president. I respectfully declined. Instead I spent election night in Atlanta, leading National Action Network’s (NAN) watch night service, similar to the New Year’s Eve service and countdown that we do every year. I then led 5,000 people to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s grave for a rally before marching across the street to Ebenezer Baptist Church — Dr. King’s church — to be with King’s sister, his daughter Bernice King and his son Martin Luther King III.

At such a historic moment, this is where I had to be; A black president wouldn’t have even been possible without Dr. King. He sacrificed everything and literally laid down his life so that we could witness the day when a black man stood on stage with his black family and accepted the office of the presidency of the United States.

We often hear people discuss King’s dream and millions enjoy a day off from work during the King holiday weekend, but few understand the amount of sheer dedication, courage and focus it took for King and many others in the civil rights movement to achieve the progress we take for granted today.

On Friday, President Donald Trump stood in the White House and signed a proclamation announcing Martin Luther King Jr. Day. "Today we celebrate Dr. King for standing up for the self-evident truth Americans hold so dear,” Trump said, “that no matter the color of our skin, or the place of our birth we are all created equal by God.”

But as his most recent comments about Haitian and African immigrants prove, Trump has no idea what it means to treat humans equally “no matter the color or our skin.” He also understands very little about the legacy of the man he claims to be honoring.

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From the Montgomery bus boycotts and lunch counter sit-ins to the march from Selma to Montgomery, the March on Washington and so much more, people put everything on the line so that our society could be more fair, just and free. There was literal blood, sweat and tears along this journey for civil rights and social justice. Do we truly remember?