TWENTY-SIX YEARS AFTER THE DEATH OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: HIS DREAM LIVES ON

Carol Keeler-Daniel peered at the Memphis motel balcony where in 1968 Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke his last words.

Though King's life was ended at age 39 by an assassin's bullet, for many, including Keeler-Daniel, his words live.

He would have been 66 today.

"We're still in the evolution of realizing his dream," said Keeler-Daniel of Cape Girardeau. The KZIM-radio talk show host and co-anchor described her family's visit to the Lorraine Motel last autumn as an emotional experience. "To be there and to be so close to such remarkable history was so moving to me," said Keeler-Daniel, a pre-schooler when King was killed.

King's dream, said Dawn Evans, is plain and simple. "Dr. King's dream, what he was striving for, is simply for human beings to look at each other as human beings."

Evans, president of the Cape Girardeau chapter of the NAACP, described King as first and foremost a man of God. "What he strived to do was nothing more nor less than what every religion strives for in the unity of faith and love and harmony," she said.

"There's an extreme, continued need for that," Evans asserted.

And many believe there are lessons to be learned by looking at the past. "We have to continually remind ourselves of the good, the bad and the ugly of our history and this is all those things," Keeler-Daniel said. "His life represents, certainly, the good, what he was fighting about represents the ugly, and the bad is obvious."

His father a Baptist minister and his mother a school teacher, Martin Luther King Jr. was the second of three children born to Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King.

He met his future wife, Coretta Scott, while pursuing his doctorate at Boston University. They were married in 1953 and in 1954, the Kings moved to Montgomery, Ala., where the young pastor had accepted the pastorate at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

Just over a year later, history relates, Rosa Parks decided to stick to her principles in a Montgomery bus.

A bus boycott ensued and King was elected to lead the group spearheading the protest. Through the roller-coaster years to come, which, in the mid 1960s, saw the passage of landmark civil rights legislation, King advocated non-violent, direct action. The goal, he wrote, was to bring about open discussion, negotiation.

"Lots of people will risk jeopardizing themselves when they have nothing to lose. But Martin Luther King had a lot to lose," said J. Michael Heston, coordinator of the Court Appointed Special Advocates Program for the 32nd Judicial District.

Heston of Cape Girardeau said that above all King was a responsible man.

And being responsible, Heston observed, is too often perceived these days as a passive thing, as being comfortable with the status quo. Citing King's essay, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," Heston explained, "He taught us there is a dimension of protest in being responsible."

King's natural speaking skills captured the attention of rapt audiences on untold occasions. Heston observed that King never lost his ability to communicate with the grassroots.

Mack A. Wilson, associate professor of agriculture at Southeast Missouri State University, remembers King's power to move. Wilson was in his third year at Fort Valley State College in Fort Valley, Ga., when King stood at the Lincoln Memorial and spoke of his dream.

"I feel he touched the lives of a lot of people, not only blacks, but also whites," Wilson said, reflecting on King's life.

"He was for equality," the associate professor summed up. "He was a person who wanted to see equality among races of people."

That King was so multi-faceted is a point that Debra Mitchell-Braxton believes is too often missed. "He was not just a leader for African-American people," said Mitchell-Braxton, assistant director of the Southeast Missouri State University Campus Assistance Center, "He looked at all the impoverished. He believed in saying `This constitution is a document that should hold true for all individuals.'"

And King did not stand alone, said Keeler-Daniel. She contends that there are lessons to be learned, and perhaps hope to be gained, from studying the period in which King lived.

"It's so important today, given the almost insurmountable problems we face in this country, to know that a short time ago, people were able to take on big issues and talk about them and act on them," she said.

Derek Hudson, a 24-year-old admissions counselor at Southeast Missouri State University, admires the meticulousness with which King and others set about accomplishing their goals. And, he's grateful for the way those efforts have ultimately impacted his life, though he encourages members of his race to guard against complacency.

"We should have an appreciation for the voice we have now, but recognize there are still problems and adversities that face us, and use these rights ... to make things better," he said.

Hudson believes King's legacy is a responsibility that peoples of all races bear. "I believe the dream is still alive," he said. "It's up to all of us to keep it alive."