Former Santa Monica Mayor Nat Trives delivered the following speech in commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. at Santa Monica's 28th celebration of the Civil Rights leader's birthday. Trives delivered the speech at SGI Auditorium at 525 Wilshire on January 19 .

January 21, 2013 -- I am honored to be with you on occasion of Santa Monica's 28th Celebration ceremony in recognition of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. who, if he were alive today would be 84 years old. But in point of fact he was assassinated over 44 years ago.

I have been through an emotional ringer over the past couple weeks as I watched my Mother, Lillie Bell Blakley celebrate her 96th birthday on Sunday, January 6, 2013 among her children and scores of Grand, Great-Grand and Great-Great-Grand Children, with a lovely cake and all the trimmings.

Three days later, on Wednesday January 9, 2013 she passed away while I, along with a sister and a nephew were at her bedside. Yesterday, Friday, January 18, 2013 we celebrated her life at her funeral in her home church, Lincoln Avenue Church of Christ in Pasadena. The church was filled to capacity with family members from across the USA, and scores of well wishers who came to pay their respects. Graveside services were held Forrest Lawn. I share this with you only to allow me to thank the many Santa Monicans who have sent cards, flowers and food and who also attended the services. Many of them are in the audience today.

The topic of my talk today will focus on the subject "Redeem the Dream". I went to the Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech which approaches its 50th anniversary and lifted the following Six "Dreams" for us to have a look at today. The tools that I will use to examine whether any of the six have been fulfilled to the satisfaction of anyone in our audience are historical and empirical evidence.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men [I include women here] are created equal."

Douglas Georgia - The Georgia State Conference NAACP President, Edward DuBose is calling for an investigation of the Douglas Georgia (Coffee County) Law Enforcement Agency and Fire Department by the U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation concerning allegations of the use of hangman's nooses against fellow law enforcement and fire department officers. A noose was allegedly placed in the work area of an African American Law Enforcement Officer by at least three "White" officers in October 2010.

The officer accused of spearheading this egregious act was fired from the Douglas Police Department, but rehired by the City of Douglas to work within another department. Less than one week from the noose incident with the African American Law Enforcement Officer, a Douglas, Georgia African American Fireman allegedly had a noose placed around his neck while interviewing for a job promotion with the Fire Chief and at least four other "White" Fire Department officials. No action has been taken by the City against the Fire Chief or the officers in the room who allegedly placed the noose around the Fireman's neck.

The Fireman is being forced to continue working in this environment with a Fire Chief who allegedly participated in this incident. These are clear incidents of the use of hate symbols and fear tactics to create a hostile and dangerous environment for fellow officers and should be investigated as criminal.On December 12, 2011, the Georgia State Conference NAACP brought this concern to the Douglas City Mayor and City Commissioners vowing that we would continue calling for justice to be served in this case. We will continue to be visible in Douglas, Georgia including a march that is currently being scheduled for the month of February 2012.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

Bill Denny, a Mississippi Republican state representative elected in 1987, sponsored that state's voter-ID bill - awaiting preclearance by the Justice Department - because he thinks voter impersonation is a problem even if there have been few prosecutions. "Whether you have proof of it or not," he added, "what in the heavens is wrong with showing an ID at polls?"

Dr. Lori Minnite, the Rutgers professor, is worried that lawmakers could disenfranchise voters who don't obtain the correct IDs and are prohibited from voting in November based on a problem that barely exists. "Voter fraud is not a problem [so] the solution should not be to address voter fraud," Minnite said. She said it could be especially burdensome for poor people to obtain the correct documents to get an ID - even for a free ID that some states with new ID laws are providing. Minnite asked whether voting rights for "thousands of people should be sacrificed ... where there is absolutely no basis for (voter ID) in the first place." Civil-rights groups compare the voter-ID laws to Jim Crow laws, poll taxes and literacy tests designed to keep blacks from voting in the past.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Dr. King's three surviving children actively advocate for equal justice for all as they carry on the tradition of their father. Yolanda Denise King was the first-born child of Coretta Scott King and civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Her younger siblings were Martin Luther King, III, Dexter Scott King, and Bernice Albertine King.

Yolonda was our MLK Day speaker in 2006, the year we cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the Martin Luther King Auditorium in the Main Santa Monica Library at 601 Santa Monica Blvd. Yolanda died in Santa Monica on May 15, 2007.

Martin Luther King III is an American human rights advocate and community activist. He is the eldest son and oldest living child of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Martin Luther King III, Dr. King's eldest son, was only five years old when his father stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to share his dream with 200,000 people. Now Martin Luther King III is in South Florida, where he served as the keynote speaker for the YMCA of Broward County Inspirational Breakfast on Friday January 18, 2013. The event was named in honor of Dr. King. Dr. King was a member of the Butler Street YMCA in Atlanta, Georgia, where he spent hours with his family. Dexter Scott King is the second son of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. He is a Morehouse College man and was at the center of internal family fight over management of the King estate.

The Reverend Dr. Bernice King was the first King child to speak outside Atlanta on the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. I flew to Atlanta and went to the King Center and met with the King people and was initially rebuffed, however at the time Bernice was pursuing a college education I persuaded her that her speaker’s honorarium would go a long way toward paying her tuition. Low and behoid, our MLK Day speaker in 1991 was Bernice king who spoke to a full house in the Santa Monica College Pavilion.

On the one hand, I do believe this Dream has been fulfilled in that the nation today is more likely to judge the King off-springs by their actions and deeds rather than by their race. But on the other hand, there are always “Talk Radio Folk” who belie common decency.

I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

The Southern Poverty Law Center today demanded that Alabama’s Autauga County Schools end policies and practices that have excluded immigrant students from extracurricular activities. Alabama has made a costly and ill-advised decision to go all the Way to the U.S. Supreme Court to criminalize Alabamians for providing shelter - or even a ride - to a person unable to prove his immigration status, the Southern Poverty Law Center said today after the state appealed a lower court’s ruling against its anti-immigrant law, also known as HB 56.

One the one hand, I believe this DREAM has gone unfulfilled. But on the other Hand, believe it or not, Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat but Alabama native who was badly beaten during the attack on marchers in 1965, rallied marchers Sunday, telling them that the struggles for human rights in 1965 and in 2012 are the same.

"Forty­seven years ago l spilled a little blood on that bridge but that was nothing compared to those who died so that we could live in a better America," Lewis told a large Crowd En front of Brown Chapel AME Church, the same Church marchers used to stage the 1965 march. "We march today for whatwe did 47 years ago for what is fair, what is right and for what is just."

I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

I believe this is the only one of Dr. Kings Dreams that can be Redeemed and only in a Spiritual Sense when someone like Dr. King and my Mother meet in that great "Hereafter" where the dream described above can indeed be a Spiritual Reality.

As I take my seat I am reminded of something Laurel Rosen, President & CEO of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce said in a recent meeting at the Chamber office and I quote: "Everyone in the room is as important as the person seated next to you."

Thank you for having me join you for this 2013 Celebration of the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.