Commemorative events in Selma during this past month brought to mind events of the 1960s. I vividly remember hearing the junior high principal announce the assassination of President Kennedy. I remember TV coverage of the Selma march to Montgomery and newspaper coverage by the New York City papers of the rationale for the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

Have we made progress during the past 50 years? In advocating for the passage of civil rights legislation, President Kennedy asserted that a number of inequities existed in the United States:

"The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the State in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing a high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day, one-third as much chance of completing college, one-third as much chance of becoming a professional man, twice as much chance of becoming unemployed, about one-seventh as much chance of earning $10,000 a year, a life expectancy which is 7 years shorter, and the prospects of earning only half as much."

Where do we stand today?