MILWAUKEE - Martin Luther King Day holds special meaning for many. And the election of Barack Obama fits right into Doctor King's dream.
Former Milwaukee Public School superintendent Howard Fuller led marches before and after King was killed and like Barack Obama, he was once a community organizer.
In recent years Fuller has been a powerful voice in Milwaukee on race, poverty and education.
But as a young man, Fuller organized a march in Durham North Carolina the day after Martin Luther King was killed.
"I feel the best way to honor his memory was to have this huge march," Fuller said.
The anxious look on Fuller's face in one photo is forever etched in his memory. "I had just spotted some white men on the roof of the bank building with rifles," Fuller explained.
Troubling times and Fuller was right in the middle of it.
Reporter Charles Benson asked, "At that moment in time could you ever image this moment in time?"
"No, not ever," Fuller replied.
Fuller embraces the excitement of Barack Obama becoming President.
"I'm excited for all the people who fought all these years, who did voter registration who did all of these things that clearly help make this possiblem," Fuller said.
But the 68-year-old former community organizer says his excitement for Obama is sobered by some of the challenges that have not changed since King.
"It's very important that America could elect a black person president," said Fuller. "It is more important that we can address the problems of poverty."
But Fuller knows a President Obama will have a powerful influence on young black men. One of his students at CEO Leadership Academy told him after the election, "We no longer have an excuse."
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