MLK Monument Dedication

President Obama spoke in front of thousands Oct. 16 at the dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr., memorial in West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C., where he urged the crowd to continue to draw strength from King's dreams.

"I know we will overcome. I know there are better days ahead," Obama said in the speech. "Let us keep striving, let us keep struggling, and let us keep climbing to that promised land of a nation and a world that is more fair and more just."

Entertainers Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Sheryl Crow performed at the dedication, which was postponed for seven weeks due to Hurricane Irene. The rescheduled date of the dedication marked the anniversary of the 1995 Million Man March on the National Mall.

Despite the thousands that came from around the country to celebrate the dedication, Laura White simply took a short walk from her Washington home.

 "The main reason I came out is to see King's dream be fulfilled as well as to enjoy all the festivities today," White said. "It was a long time coming and I'm glad to be alive to see it and see the dream come true."

Other speakers at the dedication included civil rights leaders the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Mayor Vincent Gray and members of the King family also spoke at the event.

"We wouldn't have missed it for the world," White said. "The crowd is great. The mayor's speech was outstanding. Everything has been great so far, but for me, the highlight would be President Obama's speech."

Kimberly Carpenter, a graduate student at Duke University, attended the dedication from North Carolina with members of the NAACP.

"We need to remember and look back, and I don't feel like we do enough of that," she said.

Carpenter said she wants the Kings of today to stand up and she wants the younger people to realize their own power and the spirit alive within themselves.

"[The president] can't do it all by himself; we elected these people and we have to stand up…I hope people get that energy today, and have people realize democracy is what they make of it," Carpenter added.

Charlotte Dicks, an administrative assistant at the Department of Resident Life at the university, expressed the impact Martin Luther King, Jr., left on America.

"What he projected to the world paved the way for Obama to be elected," she said. "They are both supporters of the democratic process and [are] for the people…I do believe King paved the way for a lot of different things to happen in America."