Although much has changed since Dr. King's era, today we must still challenge the immoral poverty and neglect of our brothers and sisters who were left to the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. Like Dr. King in his day, who spoke out courageously against the Vietnam War, we too must say "No!" to wars for oil in the Middle East and beyond. And, today we must respond with the same courage to perhaps the biggest crises our species has ever collectively faced, global warming.

In his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, Dr. King spoke of a people exiled on a lonely island of poverty amidst a vast ocean of prosperity. Today, this situation persists. We've traded in legal racial segregation for a culture of private mega-prisons and toxic factories that are stealing the dreams of the next generation. The good news is that young people and communities of color are already growing a movement to do something about it. It is a movement that is giving urban youth meaningful, dignified jobs - building the economy of the future.

We believe that if Dr. King were with us today, he would be standing with those communities that have been locked out of the last century's pollution-based economy. And he would indeed be working to ensure that all our people, the entire beloved community, is included in the emerging clean and renewable economic vision.

Today there are new voices, new leaders in low-income neighborhoods who have stories to tell. This is a movement of youth of color getting job training, support, and hands-on work experience installing solar panels so that they can independently pursue opportunities in the new energy economy. This is a movement of students from historically black colleges like Howard University and Morehouse College who are part of a new national network of youth of color fighting for climate justice. In Los Angeles, the South Bronx, New Orleans, Detroit, Newark, Milwaukee, Boston, Memphis, and across the country, there are communities emerging who share this vision and are innovating green jobs solutions to transform their cities.

Something Beautiful Happened

This year, Green For All wanted to do something special on April 4, 2008, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. So we did something unusual. We brought more than 1,000 people to Memphis, the Southern city where he was assassinated. And then and there, we declared the dream reborn.

Furthermore, we vowed that this time the dream will uplift both the people and the planet.

It was a truly beautiful event. The "Dream Reborn" conference was the first "green" summit to honor Martin Luther King and explicitly link his vision of justice to the emerging green economy. For those who attended, it seemed to be a transformative, life-changing experience.

For years now, conventional wisdom has held that no "green" conference could attract people of color or low-income people. It was always assumed that attendance at such summits would always be 90 percent white and overwhelmingly affluent.

Not this time. More than 70 percent of the 1,200 attendees were people of color. And more than half of all attendees were of modest means; as a result, they qualified for some level of "scholarship" support to attend the three-day event.

As a result, the conference didn't just look totally different. It felt totally different. From the main stage, we heard drums, prayers, choirs, poetry, and speeches that sounded more like passionate civil rights sermons. From the audience, we heard cheers, chants, shouts and sometimes sobs.

And during workshop times, the conference center looked like a ghost town. That is because few attendees lingered in the hallways, chatting and socializing and trading business cards. Instead, they crammed themselves into every chair, covered every bit of floor space, stood along the walls - hungry to learn how they could make their own neighborhoods and cities bloom as green oases of prosperity.

During the day, the plenaries, panels, workshops, and sessions were packed and overflowing with people of color, labor leaders, and white people from struggling communities. And at night, slam poets grabbed the microphones, dance music took over the sound system, and laughter filled the sidewalks and streets around the conference center. Outside of a church revival, I have never seen so many people of color laughing, crying, and hugging.

In fact, I have never experienced the kind of energy I felt throughout the convening. Civil rights veterans in attendance were openly weeping; many said that they themselves had experienced nothing like it since the 1960s. Something powerful shifted on April 4th.

Dr. King has been gone for 40 years now, longer than he was ever here. Those of us born since his murder - two generations of adults, plus a rising set of teenagers - have a duty to re-imagine the dream for a new century and to make it into a reality. On April 4th, a critical mass of us decided to do just that.